UK & Ireland

The City of London Corporation has approved plans to refurbish the building at 65 Fleet Street into a new mixed-use scheme. Currently an underused office building, the site will be retrofitted and transformed into a professionally managed, student living accommodation, with over 850 rooms, set near to the London School of Economics and Kings College London.

Singapore’s Mapletree Investments has put up for sale a set of 24 UK purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) properties totaling 4,844 beds, as the Temasek Holdings-backed property firm continues to rejig its S$6.2 billion student accommodation portfolio.

JLL has brought 0.25 acres at Dixon Street in the heart of Glasgow city centre to market. The site occupies a prominent corner position at the end of Buchanan Street, fronting onto the River Clyde by St Enoch subway station.

CBRE’s latest Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Index has reported total returns of 9.8% for the sector in the year to September 2024. According to CBRE UK’s Monthly Index, total returns for all commercial property were 3.5% over the same period, indicating PBSA has now outperformed all commercial property for three consecutive years.

Watkin Jones has announced an expansion of its senior team with the recent internal appointments of Gwyn Pritchard, Managing Director of construction and Michael Bunyan, Group Development Project & Cost Director.

Plans have been lodged for 438 build-to-rent apartments, 419 student beds, and a 24,100 sq ft academic facility at the former Hilti headquarters in Stretford. Cole Waterhouse said its proposals for the two-acre brownfield plot off Trafford Wharf Road represent a gross development value of £200m.

Fusion Group, the developer behind the project, has purchased the site from the retailer to deliver new student homes and an improved shopping environment aimed at kickstarting Sauchiehall Street’s regeneration.

Planning permission for a the proposed redevelopment of the CAFRE Greenmount campus outside Antrim was granted at a meeting of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Planning Committee on Monday evening, October 21.

Work on a new waterfront development featuring shops, leisure businesses and student accommodation in York is set to begin in early 2026 after plans were approved.

A new report, authored by Higher Education Policy Institute president Bahram Bekhradnia, argues that a reduction in student demand for higher education in England and...