UNITE launch new Edinburgh property into fraught student housing market

Architects of new UNITE accommodation

Image: Eddie Fisher

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A new student accommodation development has been unveiled in Edinburgh’s Canongate by UNITE, the UK’s leading private provider of student housing.

The building at Panmure Court on Calton Road will, when fully completed, comprise 59 studio apartments for either one or two residents, each with their own kitchen space and separate shower room.

Several of the completed apartments have already been rented out to students from various Edinburgh universities and colleges, representing a wide range of nationalities and the full spectrum of ages, from freshers to doctoral postgraduates.

Jim Pike, Acquisition and Development Director at UNITE in Scotland, characterised Panmure Court’s studio apartments as “premium quality student accommodation,” placing an emphasis on the development’s security features, which include closed-circuit television fed to UNITE’s headquarters in Bristol. Hospitality managers will be on-site at all times to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, who will also have use of dedicated maintenance staff on call to resolve issues as they arise.

UNITE hope to benefit from pressures on student accommodation caused by new restrictions on the number of HMO licenses issued in so-called ‘sensitive areas’. Provision of licenses, which are required for properties rented to three or more tenants, is limited to 30 per cent of housing stock in these areas.

In 2006, Edinburgh City Council increased the number of sensitive areas from 25 to 63; these now include neighbourhoods popular with students, such as Marchmont and Tollcross.

Speaking to The Journal, Mr Pike said: “It’s understandable that communities don’t want large numbers of students in the area. Clearly, when you get them together in one space, there’s less chance of friction.” Mr Pike denied that living outside the community diminishes the student experience.

Speaking about the student housing problem in the Glasgow Herald, Edinburgh University Student Association President Josh MacAlister recently said: “The council hasn't really responded to that very well, either in service provision or in giving planning permission to developers who will build affordable housing.”

His call for affordable accommodation is unlikely to be answered by Panmure Court, as the quality of the building is reflected in the price of rent. Whilst Edinburgh University student accommodation costs £80-90 per week, rent for the UNITE property will total £160 per week, a sum that represents more than double the figure offered in Heriot-Watt University's spending guidance.

Publicity has focused on the dramatic rise in HMO license provision, with Scottish Government figures showing a year-on-year increase of nearly 100 per cent in some areas.

Communities hosting large universities have struggled to cope with the influx of students seeking accommodation; a June 2007 St Andrews Residents' Association report for the local council complains that “in some streets HMO saturation is now 95 per cent.”

A 2002 report commissioned by the Scottish Government investigating the provision of HMO licenses a year after their introduction indicated that data collection was deficient and produced inaccurately low figures in regards to the number of HMO properties.

According to the report, “local authority knowledge on the size of the HMO sector and the number of HMOs of different sizes within their area was very poor,” while “the city councils of Edinburgh and Glasgow were the only authorities where evidence was found of systematic street-level, survey work to identify HMOs.”

In some cases, the proportion of Scottish local authorities providing data was as low as 16 per cent.

The project at Panmure Place continues the expansion of UNITE’s holdings in Edinburgh, with this – the company’s third completed property in the city – to be joined by a development under construction on Potterrow, and a proposed site at Chalmers Street on the Meadows.

The value of the completed property, designed by Glasgow architectural firm Murray & Dunlop and built by contractors Mansell, is estimated at roughly £8 million.

The same figure was spent by UNITE in acquiring undeveloped land at its Chalmers Street site, in one of Scotland’s largest ever property deals.

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