Home / Europe / United Kingdom / Real Estate / Student Accommodation

Student Accommodation

Back to Real Estate

The purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) sector is one that has grown exponentially over the previous decade both domestically and internationally, so much so that the PBSA market has matured enough to no longer be considered an alternative asset class. It is a high performing and extremely attractive asset class of huge importance to developers, funders and of course to the end-users – universities, colleges and students.

Whilst student housing is a high performing and extremely attractive asset, fierce competition for land, coupled with increasing Government regulation in the sector, means that commercial, pragmatic legal advice is more important than ever.

At CMS, we have been market leaders in the sector for over two decades. Whether you are an investor looking for a direct let or leased model, or a University or operator, we can provide advice on funding, acquisition, development, construction, letting, nominations, service level, management and residential tenancy agreements.

We can also provide specialist advice in relation to complex tax considerations (particularly VAT issues in relation to forward funding) and planning (in England there are three different use classes for student accommodation), as well as on joint ventures and income strip structures.

We are at the heart of the debate in relation to regulation and reform in the sector as active members of the BPF’s Student Accommodation Committee. We are also providing input to the SPF’s response documents to the Scottish Government on the financial implications of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill and its fitness for purpose in the PBSA sector and the wider PRS.

We are very pleased to act for the top players in the market including: UNITE Students, The Dot Group / GSA, Urbanest, Curlew Student Trust, Knightsbridge, iQ (Wellcome), Ziggurat, M&G Funds, Bouwfonds European Student Housing Fund, Fresh Student Living, The University of Glasgow and Imperial College.

glass windowa
               

CMS Real Estate Student Accommodation Brochure

10/11/2023
Driving sustainability in real estate and construction
Contributing to the fight against climate change and creating social value are now priorities for the real estate and construction sectors.   The long-term nature of the built environment means that resilience and sustainability should be considered at every stage if buildings are to be environmentally and socially responsible. This brings both opportunities and challenges for the businesses that create, own or maintain it. They must consider the evolving technical, regulatory and market landscape, to ensure that their investments are future-proofed commercially, as well as environmentally and socially. This section of Bandwidth looks at some of the ESG issues that confront developers and property owners, and how they can incorporate practical solutions into their businesses.
Publication
CMS Student Accommodation: expertise and capabilities
Law-Now: Real Estate
Visit Law-Now for legal know-how and commentary

Feed

07/11/2024
Key real estate issues to consider with data centres
The aim of this session is to provide an overview of datacentres and how they operate in a real estate context, but also to go more in depth into a couple of sticky points, such as the meaning of reliability in the datacentre context and to then provide individuals with ample opportunity to ask any questions they may have.
Event Webinar
15/10/2024
Impact of changes to registration of overseas entities and other Companies...
This programme of webinars provides a short and incisive review of some key topics relating to real estate, planning and construction in the United Kingdom.  
Event Webinar
04/09/2024
What’s new with the Electronic Communications Code?
This programme of webinars provides a short and incisive review of some key topics relating to real estate, planning and construction in the United Kingdom.  
Event Webinar
16/05/2024
Biodiversity Net Gain
This programme of webinars provides a short and incisive review of some key topics relating to real estate, planning and construction in the United Kingdom.  
Event Webinar
24/04/2024
The Building Safety Act 2022 and Student Accommodation
This programme of webinars provides a short and incisive review of some key topics relating to real estate, planning and construction in the United Kingdom.  
Event Webinar
20/02/2024
MEES - why are local authorities failing to enforce?
The UK government has a continued drive and commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Yet as highlighted in the first of this series of publications, “MEES – are the regulations working?” the risk of MEES enforcement is low. Against a hotly discussed political backdrop, why is it that local authorities are continually failing to enforce the MEES regulations? Left alone, the existing approach serves to undermine the UK’s net zero strategy.
Publication
28/06/2023
Tomorrow
Taking the long view Even in challenging times, real estate investors continue to have a strong degree of confidence in the future of the sector.
Publication
14/06/2023
London
The majority of UK real estate professionals continue to believe that London is overvalued. As our chart shows, this is very much business as usual. Over the past eight years, only 2021 - when investors began to wonder what a post-covid market might look like - has challenged the status quo. Even then, what we saw was only a significant narrowing of the gap, not a reversal. In this year’s polling, 62% of our respondents feel London is overvalued, as opposed to 6% who believe it is undervalued. These are the most bearish numbers we have seen since pre‑Brexit days.
Publication
14/06/2023
Infographic
  
Publication
14/06/2023
Sustainable offices and EPC requirements
Investors may be moving towards the view that making offices sustainable does not necessarily equate to higher costs for occupiers.
Publication
14/06/2023
The view from the UK
Every year we ask a cross-section of leading UK real estate professionals for their views on the market. This year we polled 270 experts, including 62 investors and 54 developers. In many ways they share the outlook of the global investors we surveyed, with long-term confidence tempered by short-term concerns. Overall, 38% reported feeling optimistic about the market, while 34% describe themselves as neutral and 28% are pessimistic. Although positive, this take on the market is unsurprisingly more cautious than the one we found 12 months ago, with sentiment falling back to levels last seen at the beginning of the pandemic as the more bullish outlook of the past two years recedes.
Publication
14/06/2023
Global cities
As our chart shows, the genuinely ‘global’ cities remain the most appealing (albeit by slim margins), with the top four slots going to London, Paris, Tokyo and New York.
Publication
Load more articles