South West-based student accommodation group Unite achieved 15% growth in earnings during the first half of this year as high occupancy, rental growth and investment into its portfolio paid off.
The Bristol-headquartered group, which owns, manages and develops student accommodation sites across the UK, said universities continued to attract school leavers in record numbers while improving recruitment of international students reflected the UK’s attractiveness as a study destination.
The group’s sales for the 2025/26 academic year were building momentum, chief executive Joe Lister said, and the group expected strong demand for accommodation in late August and September following A-level results.
Across the group’s operational portfolio, 88% of rooms were now sold for the 2025/26 academic year, it said, against 94% in the same period last year, reflecting the trend for later bookings in the sales cycle.
Demand for its accommodation remained underpinned by its alignment to the UK’s strongest universities and nomination agreements with its university partners, Unite said, adding that its off-campus development and on-campus partnership pipeline would deliver earnings growth over the medium term.
Today’s interim results statement gave no update on the talks with smaller rival Empiric Student Property over a possible £719m cash-and-shares bid.
However, it did say the possible acquisition of Empiric’s “high-quality and complementary portfolio” would provide it with greater scale and enhanced growth opportunities aligned to the UK’s strongest universities.
It added: “Empiric’s differentiated product and service would broaden Unite Student’s offering to returning students.
“The possible offer is expected to deliver earnings accretion and enhanced returns for both sets of shareholders while maintaining balance sheet strength. There can be no certainty that an offer will be made. A further announcement will be made in due course.”
Unite also said it saw significant potential to add to its growing pipeline of on-campus university partnerships as structurally growing demand continued to combine with limited new supply to create a range of attractive investment opportunities.
“Our alignment to the UK’s strongest universities and investment pipeline position the business to deliver sustainable earnings growth,” it added.
During the half year to the end of June it also received planning approval secured for a 2,000-bed Newcastle University joint venture, secured a new joint venture with Manchester Metropolitan University to develop 2,300 beds and received growing interest from universities to explore strategic accommodation partnerships.
It also delivered more than 1,000 new beds in Bristol and Edinburgh for the 2025/26 academic year and disposed of 10 properties totalling £214m to improve its portfolio quality.
Unite was the first provider of purpose-built student accommodation in the UK when it launched 34 years ago in Bristol.
Today it has a portfolio of around 25,000 bed spaces in 60-plus properties across almost 20 university towns in cities, including 14 buildings in and around Bristol and one in Bath.