Is this how you remember your student digs?
From private dinner party rooms to ‘festival floors’, developers are creating student accommodation that’s in a class of its own
What do you remember from your time as a student? As far as I recall, my three years as a literature undergraduate were spent fighting over the incomprehensible meaning of T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and perfecting the art of cooking cheese on toast in a freezing cold tower block. I don’t recall spending much time in the gym (I don’t think there even was a gym), neither do I remember sliding down helter-skelters nor inviting friends over to my accommodation’s very own private dining room.
Times change, though, and in 2022 student accommodation is a far cry from the concrete jungles and grotty terraces that housed you and me. Knight Frank’s Student Property team is at the forefront of this reimagining of student living today, and the department’s Joint Head, Merelina Sykes, is passionate about driving change in the sector.
“We get a lot of satisfaction from housing the next generation. No matter who they are or where they’re studying, the students we house are going to be shaping the future for all of us, so playing a small part in giving them a good experience while they study is very rewarding,” she says.
Sykes’s team work as consultants and partners for developers that specialise in purpose-built student accommodation, and help to drive ambitious developments from conception through to working capacity.
As with any new developments, ESG is a priority for student living projects, although many of the developers that Knight Frank works with are ahead of the curve. “Everyone’s talking about it now, but in reality we’ve been putting ESG design features into practice for a long time because any accommodation that’s built is going to house students who are hopeless when it comes to turning lights off or closing windows,” she says.
“We have to help developers to keep an eye on energy costs. The social side of things is crucial too; we need to give students places to interact, and we need to offer pastoral care. Ultimately, if they’re living in your accommodation, you’re the parents away from their parents.”
A good example of this approach is a purpose-built scheme in Glasgow for developer True Student that her team sold in 2019. “The developer has just opened its own in-house food and beverage company called Doza, which is short for donuts and pizza,” she says. “Their space in the scheme is in what we called the ‘festival zone’ – the building’s social hub.” The scheme also includes a sizeable gym, cinema room, grocery store and events programme.
For landowners, student living also presents a smart investment opportunity. “It’s worth remembering that the demand for student living is countercyclical,” says Sykes. “When the economy’s rocky, people tend to go back to studying. In the next 10 years there are going to be around 270,000 more students looking to study in the UK than there are in 2022, so demand for accommodation is likely to remain high.”
While some elements of university life will likely always be the same – the bleary-eyed poetry reading and carbohydrate-heavy diet – these new developments are a far cry from the student digs of old. Living there may come at a premium, but for today’s prospective freshers, to be well cared for in purpose-built accommodation is money well-spent. Certainly, when it comes to living arrangements there’s never been a better time to be a student.