The UK's student accommodation sector 'is still booming'

The student accommodation sector in the UK is still booming despite Brexit, says one leading real estate firm.

The student property team at Knight Frank says that in 2019, more than 29,000 purpose-built student beds will be made available.

This will push the UK's total student accommodation sector to more than 600,000 beds.

The firm says that Asian and North American institutional investors will continue dominating the purpose-built student accommodation market in the UK next year.

And of those investors, those with the strongest appetite for investing are coming from Singapore, the United States and Hong Kong.

'29,000 purpose-built student beds being delivered'

Knight Franks' global head of student property, James Pullan, said: "We are predicting in excess of 29,000 purpose-built student beds being delivered in 2019, which is similar to Gibraltar's population.

"This is a significant contribution to the housing shortage in the UK and helps to ease the pressure on current housing stock."

He added: "Global investors are continuing to acquire student accommodation assets in the UK despite Brexit which is underpinned by the UK's world-renowned higher education system."

He added that investors are attracted to the asset class because it offers a stable income stream with strong year-on-year rental growth.

This is particularly the case, Mr Pullan says, when student accommodation is compared with more mature asset classes such as the offices’ sector.

Knight Frank is also predicting 2% rental growth in 2019 for the student market.

The best investment properties for yields revealed

Meanwhile, the property types that deliver the highest yields for landlords have been revealed by a specialist online buy to let agency.

According to yieldit, three of their top five best yielding properties are houses with at least three bedrooms. These are producing net yields of up to 11%.

The firm says that these properties can house multiple tenants or large families and will make for a sound investment choice. For property types in relation to yields, houses come out on top again with an average net yield of 6.4%, compared with 5.3% for studios and 4.9% for apartments.

The firm's head of sales, Ryan Hughes, said: "Deciding on property type is a big choice that landlords have to make and housing that's suitable for families are a popular choice with significantly higher yields."

He added that for those landlords wanting to invest in apartments, then there is a growing demand for one-bedroom apartments without parking with tenants looking for environmentally friendly ways of travelling.