Unite hails strong lettings performance

Unite Group said on Thursday that its business continues to perform strongly in 2017, with good levels of demand from students from the UK, the EU and other international students.

In a trading update for 1 January to date ahead of its annual general meeting, the manager and developer of student accommodation said it has seen a strong lettings performance, with reservations at 82% at 11 May versus 80% in 2016, at pricing that is supportive of like-for-like rental growth of 3% to 3.5%.

The group said it had recycled £434m from the sale of non-core assets, which will be used to fund its development pipeline through to the end of 2019. The development pipeline now totals over 7,000 beds in university locations and is expected to add 12-14p of earnings per share when completed and fully let.

Chief executive Richard Smith said: "We have made excellent progress in the first four months of the year, not only in the progression of our development pipeline, but in strengthening our relationships with universities and continuing to demonstrate how our market leading operating platform enables great customer service.

"Our lettings for 2017/18 are substantially under-pinned and given the ongoing high demand for quality accommodation from students and Universities alike, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year and beyond."

At 0805 BST, the shares were down 0.5 % to 642.50p.