860.50 p (-11.00) 
Annual Report and Accounts 2024
Home for Success
We performed strongly in 2024, delivering growth and demonstrating resilience in a challenging market through strong university relationships, sustainable rental growth and substantial investment in our portfolio.
Dive into our annual report to find out more about our 2024 strategy and performance.
Our Purpose
We believe in helping young people get the best out of life. The place where they study and live together should be a home where they can grow, belong and be themselves.
As a trusted member of the Higher Education (HE) community, we support the universities we partner with to build a brighter future for students everywhere. We offer original insights, champion student wellbeing and raise standards together.
We’re passionate about making a positive and lasting impact on our neighbourhoods, society and the planet. Always working for the long term, we’re proud to contribute to local housing needs.
Continuing to grow
The business delivered continued growth in earnings and dividends in 2024.
This reflects the strength of our best-in-class operating platform, the commitment of our teams and the ongoing appeal of our value-for-money proposition. Our affordable pricing, UK customer focus and strength of relationships with universities are key differentiators, enabling us to significantly outperform the sector in more competitive environment.
We operate in a structurally growing sector, bolstered by demographic growth and attractive of the UK’s Higher Education sector to domestic and international students. The shortage of accommodation to meet this demand supports sustainable long-term rental growth and our track record and reputation in the sector create compelling investment opportunities for the business.
Listen to Joe Lister, Unite Students’ Chief Executive, as he outlines our 2024 financial results.
Strong performance
“
The business performed strongly in 2024 and demonstrated resilience in a challenging market. We continue to deliver growth in our earnings over the year and our record development pipeline supports this into the medium term.
Joe Lister
Chief Executive
Strong demand
“
Annual rents increased by 8.2% on a like-for-like basis for 2024/25 academic year, which was above our initial expectations. We saw strong growth across both our direct-let and nominated beds.
We achieved occupancy of 97.5% across our total portfolio for the 2024/25 academic year, as the market returned to more normal levels of occupancy.
Quality developments
“
Our property portfolio saw a 4.9% increase in valuations on a like-for-like basis during the year (Unite share: 4.8%), as strong rental growth more than offset the loss of Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) and increases in property yields.
Tom Brewerton
Group Development Director
Strong, sustainable performance
“
We delivered a strong operating performance in 2024, with adjusted earnings increasing by 16% to £213.8 million, reflecting an increase in net operating income and a reduction in financial costs, when compared to the prior year.
Mike Burt
Chief Financial Officer
Operational Highlights
It’s been a great year for Unite Students. Here’s some of our highlights:
- Record customer satisfaction score of +50
- Record Higher Education trust score of +37
- Opened our lowest embodied carbon new build, Bromley Place
- Invested £32m refurbishing 11 properties
- Launch of a new student app and website
- Awarded Investors in People gold
Read more
Sustainability report
Our sustainability report, ‘Making a Positive Impact’, provides a more comprehensive overview of our work, including further explanation of our Sustainability Framework and the progress we have made against this.
Rental growth and increasing demand with Unite Group CEO Joe Lister
Recently, Joe Lister, our CEO, joined Jonathan Roy on the UK Investor Magazine podcast. The pair spoke about our 2024 financial results and growth plans, as well as macro factors that affect the business.
