Quintain announces that, in line with its business targets, its iQ student accommodation fund (the 'Fund') has already achieved 99.5% occupancy across the portfolio of 4,510 bed spaces for the forthcoming 2011/12 academic year.
This strong letting performance, including one new London property, will see the portfolio deliver total annual income of circa £24 million (approx. 27.8 million) for the Fund, reflecting rental growth of 4.3% on a like-for-like basis and an additional 20% income for the Fund when including the new asset.
iQ is a 50/50 joint venture with the Wellcome Trust, created in 2006. The Fund has grown rapidly to become one of the UK's top 10 student accommodation providers with 12 completed projects. In addition there is a further London asset under development, which on completion will bring the total number of managed beds to 5,183. The Fund continues to actively consider a number of potential sites in key strategic locations in England.
iQ's portfolio is located across major university towns, with a growing bias towards London. The lettings performance includes iQ Hoxton, a new asset for 2011/2012 academic year. Achieving 100% letting of this 257-bed scheme demonstrates the strong demand for well-located, high quality accommodation in London.
Ian Scott, Quintain's Fund Manager for iQ said, "Securing occupancy above 99% across the portfolio, including our newest scheme, reflects the quality of iQ's product, the attractive locations of our assets, the strength of the operating platform and the healthy underlying fundamentals of the student accommodation market.
"Whilst the exceptionally strong demand seen this year for student accommodation partly reflects higher than normal application numbers ahead of the tuition fee rise in 2012, there still remains a severe shortage of good quality, purpose-built accommodation, especially in London. With our scalable platform, iQ is ideally placed to grow our market share and further increase income."
Source: FD
