Unite buys 500-home Glasgow scheme

Student housing provider, Unite, has bought a site for a 477-bed student scheme in Glasgow which it plans to build for the 2012/3 academic year.

Unite said the purchase, alongside an existing scheme in the city Unite is opening later this year, brings its secured development pipeline to 4,547 homes with a development cost of £357m.

In an interim management statement the firm said that while it recognised the introduction of higher tuition fees meant fewer students will in future apply to university, it did not expect the numbers of students actually achieving university places to fall.

It added that it has finalised an agreement with 2012 Olympic Games organiser Locog to provide 3,600 rooms for the eight weeks of the games.

Mark Allan, chief executive, said: “The 2011/12 academic year looks set to be characterised by strong demand and, as details of the likely nature of forthcoming changes to higher education funding emerge, we continue to have confidence in our business model and longer term demand for our product.”