10 April 2026
If you are covering Unite's latest financial results, please find below a comment from Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot:
A tough set of quarterly results for Unite group this morning. The company announced valuation declines across the joint ventures, of minus 1.7% on their national portfolio and minus 2.4% on London assets in Q1 26. This has come from yield expansion despite evidence of positive rental growth and reflects lower sentiment across the student housing sector.
Operational challenges are also set to continue at Unite. The company's portfolio reservation rate for the upcoming academic year is behind the rate observed this time last year, despite last year itself being slow historically. The company is also continuing to guide to the low end of provided ranges for occupancy and rental growth in the coming year.
Also of note is that management is accelerating the rate of disposals of assets as the company looks to shrink the portfolio and focus on the cities with the best opportunities. The ongoing disposal programme is going as planned, but Goldman Sachs has been appointed as an adviser to propose ways that disposals could go further or faster than previous expectations. What exactly this will look like remains to be seen, but the acceleration theme suggests it could be potentially transformative for the portfolio.
