Unite Group Plc said on Friday it has completed or placed under offer property sales totalling £130 million and is marketing about £500 million of further assets, as its lettings for the 2026-27 academic year lag slightly behind last year and track toward the lower boundary of prior guidance.
The London-listed student accommodation real estate investment trust reported that 74% of beds across its portfolio were reserved for the 2026/27 academic year, down from 76% at the same stage a year earlier. The group reiterated its expectation that occupancy for the year will sit at the lower end of a 93-96% range, and maintained rental growth guidance of 2-3%.
Management said it had brought in external advisers to help speed the disposal programme and to reposition the portfolio toward what Unite described as the strongest universities. The company indicated that a cluster of around 7,000 beds located in exit cities and slower-growth markets has attracted strong initial buyer interest.
"Our strategy is focused on increasing our alignment to the UK’s leading universities," chief executive Joe Lister said, describing the broader goal of shifting the portfolio mix. The board is considering ways to hasten the transition to a more concentrated, higher-quality portfolio - actions which the group says would free up surplus capital that could be redeployed, including through share buybacks.
Unite disclosed that its £100 million share repurchase programme is 85% complete, with £85 million spent to date acquiring 17 million shares. The company noted that additional buyback tranches depend on proceeds realised from further disposals.
On quarterly valuations, Unite reported that its Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund registered a like-for-like capital decline of 1.7% in the three months to 31 March 2026. The fund’s portfolio was valued at £2,798 million, covering 22,361 beds across 56 properties. The valuation movement reflected 9 basis points of yield expansion, partly offset by 0.1% rental growth.
Separately, the London Student Accommodation Joint Venture portfolio recorded a like-for-like fall of 2.6% to £2.03 billion for the same period, driven by 13 basis points of yield expansion against 0.4% rental growth. That portfolio comprises 9,710 beds across 14 London properties and one property in Birmingham.
The group provided an update on development and operating assets. Hawthorne House, a 719-bed development, is nearing completion and is due to open in June, subject to transitional approval from the Building Safety Regulator ahead of occupation in September. Unite said roughly half of the beds at Hawthorne House are covered by a nomination agreement with a university.
Regarding its acquisition of Empiric, the company said Hello Student bookings for 2026/27 stood at 33% at the time of the update, behind the comparable point last year. Unite attributed the slower booking progress in part to a technology upgrade in late 2025 and said it had intervened in Empiric’s sales plan. The company expects Hello Student to reach about 85% occupancy for the year.
On the balance sheet and risk management front, Unite said that as of 31 March all of its group debt carried fixed or capped interest rates. The company also noted that existing utility hedges structured through forward contracts and Power Purchase Agreements reduce near-term exposure to energy price volatility.
The company is actively marketing assets and pursuing disposals while maintaining its occupancy and rental guidance bands. Management has signalled a strategic shift toward a higher-quality portfolio concentrated around leading university locations, with the potential to recycle capital for buybacks depending on disposal outcomes.