Nearly £575m was invested in the UK purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) market in Q4 2024, taking annual investment to £3.87bn – a 14% increase on activity in 2023, according to new research published by Knight Frank.
According to the company’s figures, 66 deals completed in 2024, putting the year comfortably above the five-year average of 57 transactions.
Overall, 22 development site sales completed over the course of 2024, accounting for a third of deal volumes – a record year for student land sales.
Almost 16,400 new PBSA beds were delivered across 63 schemes in 2024, representing a 3% increase in bed spaces delivered compared with the previous year. The total pipeline for 2025 is just shy of 200,000 beds across the UK, with 23% of this under construction and a further 48% with full planning permission granted.
Merelina Sykes, joint head of student property at Knight Frank said: “Deal times for stabilised assets are taking longer because of building safety regulations, which has pushed some transactions into early 2025. That said, overall activity was still robust.”
She added: “Our team are tracking £1.3bn of transactions currently under offer. The majority of deals under offer are for stabilised or portfolio deals, reflecting the opportunity investors see in upgrading and repositioning existing stock.”
