Investment Trends in the UK’s Student Accommodation Sector: Manifesting Resilience in a Maturing Asset Class?

The development of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) in the UK has been significant and substantial since the global financial crisis of 2008. As we will demonstrate, such growth has been supported by increasing institutional investment flows into this contemporary real estate sector. PBSA is underexamined in academic research and is an ‘emerging niche market that deserves more attention’ (French et al, 2018: 578). Recognising the growth of non-traditional real estate, IPF (2015) commissioned a report which determined that PBSA was perceived as being the most ‘mainstream’ of the ‘alternative’ real estate investment opportunities. Through this paper we take the opportunity to question how the terms ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’, ‘mature’ and ‘emerging’, are defined, considering how they are understood from the variegated perspective of market actors. We unpack nuanced perspectives on risk and opportunities within the PBSA market, considering perceptions of resilience, diversification and investment strategies more broadly. Findings are drawn from an ongoing European project into residential investment flows (https://whatisgovernedincities.eu/), and we triangulate perspectives drawn from literature, data and primary research on the development and transition of PBSA as a ‘maturing’ asset class. Quantitative analyses of investment trends in the UK between 2005 – 2020 using data provided by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) will be presented, combined with findings from semi-structured interviews. Provisional findings will be presented, reflecting on the perceived level of maturity and resilience in the UK’s PBSA market.