Thank you to Newmark for a thought-provoking panel on the very relevant question: why aren’t we building more student beds? 

Not a simple answer (as you’d expect), with factors including development finance, planning, construction inflation and perhaps the most significant: the Building Safety Act. 

No longer a “build it and they will come” market, PBSA has become more cautious and less open to opportunistic developers, rather relying on well capitalised developers who can demonstrate competencies at all levels. 

It’s not all doom and gloom. Although there are challenges, there continues to be lots of investment and it is expected the market will work its way through. Naturally, AI is projected to have a transformative impact in the next 5 to 10 years, and will help to push this industry up the curve faster (even with BSA delays). 

Despite concerns, in the PBSA sector at least, supply and demand isn’t going anywhere. Maples Teesdale LLP, particularly Chris Xitsas and I, will continue to post updates.