2025年第三季度英国学生公寓

Knight Frank’s quarterly review of the key development, policy andinvestment themes in the UK student property market Investors commit more than £3.4 billion to the PBSAmarket so far this year, even amid a more challengingletting environment for the 2025/26 academic year. Rich in liquidity, rich in nuance July to September marked the largest third quarter on record for UK PBSAinvestment volumes, with £1.83 billion passing hands. This takes investmentvolumes in the year to date to circa £3.4 billion, up 3% on the comparableperiod in 2024. A number of key deals transacted over the course of the quarterincluding QuadReal’s acquisition of the Apollo Portfolio for more than£550 million, and KKR’s purchase of the Curlew Capital Portfolio for a pricein the region of £230 million. Whilst the numbers suggest a liquid investment market, capital marketsintelligence suggests deal times have been prolonged in some cases. Investorshave a clear appetite for first generation standing stock assets – where thereis upside potential to deliver value-add returns. But for these deal types, firesafety, remediation work, and a later leasing cycle is contributing to elongatedtransaction timelines. Preference for portfolios While single asset operational stock still accounts for the largest share ofinvestor activity, with 27 assets sold so far this year, there has been a resurgencein portfolio transactions in 2025. In total, nine portfolios have traded over theyear-to-date. A preference for portfolios reflects investor appetite for scaleacross core-plus and value-add platforms, even amid a more challenging lettingenvironment for the 2025/26 academic year. Relative to recent peaks, land sales (11 transactions) and forward fundingopportunities (10 transactions) have slowed in the nine months to September.Significant delays at the Building Safety Regulator as a result of Gateway 2,planning challenges, and high build cost environment have all had an impacton capital allocation on land and funding pathways to the UK PBSA market.A lack of clarity on timing of Gateway 3 at the end of construction presentsfurther challenges to viability. New kids on the block A rise in new entrants and the return of existing players showcase theattractiveness of the UK PBSA sector for global capital allocation. Our analysisreveals that, since 2019, new entrants have taken a growing share of portfolio transactions. New capital sources accounted for 67% of total portfoliotransactions last year, and so far in 2025 have accounted for 44% of portfoliosales. This momentum is expected to continue. Established players remainthe core component of the UK PBSA investment market, but with new capitalsources looking for best in class assets and/or first-generation assets withpotential to deliver value-add returns, the liquidity pool has deepened. “New capital sources accountedfor 67% of total portfoliotransactions last year, and sofar in 2025 have accounted for44% of portfolio sales.” ‘Not out of the woods yet’ As expected, the Bank of England (BoE) kept interest rates at 4.00% during itsSeptember monetary policy committee meeting and announced the decisionto dial back its quantitative tightening bond-selling programme from £100billion to £70 billion. The quantitative tightening target is in line with the BoE’swider monetary policy plan to effectively reduce the banks’ balance sheet, whileensuring not to impact the government’s wider gilt issuance strategy. AndrewBailey, Governor of the BoE, suggested the UK economy was ‘not out of thewoods yet’, and while inflation stayed flat in August, unfavourable base rateeffects will likely mean inflation will rise in the September reading, and anyfurther rate cuts will need to be made gradually and slowly. See the wood for the trees Despite an optimistic view amongst some forecasters that BoE base rate couldfall up to 100bps to 3.00% by the end of 2026, lingering fiscal concerns andsofter economic outlook suggests property yields will stay elevated relative to10-year government gilts, at least in the medium term. However, the UK is notalone in this scenario, with the spread between long-term government bondyields and property yields a global phenomenon for investors. But investors can see the wood for the trees. For real estate, stable incomegrowth rather than yield spreads, is what will drive capital growth returns inthis cycle. For PBSA investors, fuelling the income return story is focusing onmarkets with favourable demand-supply imbalances, and assets with expectedvalue appreciation. Despite a more favourable debt landscape in Europe of late,UK assets have captured the lion’s share of capital spend in PBSA across thecontinent, accounting for approximately 60% a quarter since 2019. UCAS accepted applicants (000’s) Grade expectations UCAS results day data points to a strong undergraduate admissions cycle(2025/26), particularly for higher-tariff institutions. Overall acceptances areup 3.1% year-on-year, with U