Student accommodation business Unite Group has reported a pre-tax loss of £417.1m in the first half of the year, compared with the £185.9 pre-tax profit recorded in H1 2025.
In its interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2026, Unite revealed a net revaluation loss of £530.1m. Last year, Unite’s FY25 pre-tax profits stood at 97.6m following a £73.7m revaluation loss, marking a 78% plunge year on year.
Adjusted earnings also decreased mildly year on year, from £144.2m in H1 2025 to £142m in H1 2026. Like-for-like rental growth slowed to 1.5% during the period, down from the 7.4% reported in H1 2025, and the 4.9% average across 2025.
Chief financial officer Michael Burt said: “What we’ve seen is the valuations impacted in the first half slightly by higher property yields. I think that’s a function of funding costs being higher, and also investors just requiring slightly higher returns from student housing.
“We’re thinking about how we grow occupancy and income ultimately, and that’s the underpin for valuations.”
He also accredited the like-for-like rental growth to “changes in price and the slight reduction in occupancy we’ve seen this year”.
The group is now accelerating its disposals programme, with 15,000 to 20,000 beds identified for sale, the majority of which will be coming to the market this year.
It added its portfolio would now focus on 20 cities, from around 29, comprising between 55,000 and 60,000 beds, down from its current portfolio of 72,000 beds.
“We want to make sure we’re aligning our business to the UK’s strongest universities,” Burt added. “By making that transition, selling those assets, we can reinvest in developments, we can reinvest in university partnerships and, ultimately, we think we’ll have a more focused, higher-quality business on the other side of it.”
Earlier this month, the group said it was targeting the sale of between £300m and £400m of assets this year. So far, it has completed £190m of disposals, with Unite’s share standing at around £130m. It has also reinvested £165m via a share buyback programme.
Chief executive Joe Lister said the group was moving to “increase alignment to the UK’s strongest universities, where student demand is robust and growing”.
“Following a detailed portfolio review, we have set out an ambitious plan to focus our portfolio on these universities,” he added. “We are creating a higher-quality business, with strong and sustainable long-term growth prospects.”
Unite completed its landmark takeover of Empiric Student Property at the start of this year.
Rental income increased by 11% in H1 to £262.3m, up from £236.6m in H1 2025, which it said reflected the acquisition of Empiric as well as rental growth and property investment activity.
The results show that higher build costs and new regulation have made delivering “new student accommodation extremely challenging”. The group added that is expected supply conditions to tighten for student accommodation in the next two to three years.
However, it said that demand to study at the “UK’s strongest universities is robust and growing”.
The group also reported 7% growth in applications for high-tariff universities for the coming academic year, with Unite’s portfolio 89% reserved for 2026-27 (2025-26: 87%). Its sales progress supports 0% to 2% like-for-like income growth for 2026-27.
It now expects 94% to 96% occupancy and 1% to 2% rental growth for the full 2026-27 academic year (2025-26: 95.2% and 4.0%).
Meanwhile, its Hello Student portfolio is 77% reserved for 2026-27 (2025-26: 68%), and is expecting full occupancy of 88% to 90% across the year (2025-26: 89%).
“In a less certain operating environment, performance in the first half has been encouraging, with reservations up year on year for Unite Students and Hello Student and earnings in line with our expectations,” Lister added.
Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot, said: “Most acquisition deals in the real estate sector are said to be immediately accretive to earnings. However, Unite Group’s acquisition of Empiric, which finalised at the beginning of this year, has not had this effect.
“Unite is a company under pressure. The Empiric transaction came at just the wrong time, with the company looking to buy its peer just as the student accommodation market hit a peak in terms of rental growth rates and property valuations. And while rental growth remains just about positive, valuations have fallen sharply, with the company’s combined portfolio value falling 6.4% in the first half of 2026 on a like-for-like basis, following a similar trend in 2025.”
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