£24,200,000 – Northern Ireland

Puma Property Finance has provided a £24.2 million acquisition and development facility for Vita Group’s latest purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) project, a 269-studio scheme in Belfast city centre.

The completed development will be operated by Vita Student, and is targeting completion for incoming students for the 2023/24 academic year. It is conveniently situated between the prestigious Queen’s University and the city centre, allowing it to best serve the needs of the city’s full-time student population of about 45,000.

Delivered to Vita Student’s high brand standards, the new site offers residents the very best student living experience, thanks to outstanding services including private dining and study rooms, state-of-the-art gyms, and a daily events roster promoting physical and mental wellbeing.

Puma has a strong track record of funding student accommodation developments, with its latest funding commitment taking its total development of student bedrooms to over 2,000 across 10 student accommodation developments to date.

The acquisition comes after reports of shortages in university accommodation more broadly across the UK, with recent research suggesting that the national student-to-bed ratio now stands at 2.39:1, with a university-only student-to-bed ratio standing at 3.0:1.*

*Cushman & Wakefield, UK Student Accommodation Report 2022, p23.