Unite Students has bought a development site on Borough High Street in Southwark for a 444-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) scheme.
Located near Borough underground station, Kings Place will comprise 308 studio flats and 136 en-suite rooms in cluster flats for students, eight key worker residential apartments and a further 18,000 sq ft of workspace accommodation.
The scheme, which will open in time for the 2027/28 academic year, will feature a cinema room, gym, pavilion and terraces.
Tom Brewerton, group development director at Unite Students, said: “We are delighted with the acquisition of Kings Place; a high-quality development in a central London location close to a range of London’s leading universities and Borough underground station.
“Unite Students is leading the purpose-built student accommodation sector and this new acquisition is an exciting development. The site benefits from full planning permission so allows us to start demolition soon resulting in a swift delivery for the 2027/28 academic year. We are trusted by parents, students and universities to provide high quality, safe and affordable accommodation that supports the entire university experience and are committed to delivering our record £1.5bn development pipeline to meet this demand.”
Separately, Unite revealed it had successfully completed the placing, subscription and retail offer announced yesterday, raising approximately £447m from the issue of 49,686,114 new ordinary shares.
Joe Lister, chief executive officer of Unite Students, said: “This successful completion of our capital raise reflects the significant investor support for Unite Students and our growth prospects as well as recognition of the continued strong fundamentals of the student accommodation sector. The proceeds will support a doubling of our committed pipeline by year end to over £1bn and see us acquiring assets with asset management potential from USAF to enhance our future returns. This capital raise enables us to accelerate the delivery of new, high quality, affordable student accommodation where it is needed most and support the growth ambitions of our university partners.”
