London Mayor capping some student rents in the capital

Over £100m has been invested into a new site that will offer purpose b built accommodation for 713 students beds in London. 

NatWest and Virgin Money have backed a new student residence in Hammersmith which is currently under development through a forward funding agreement between Scape Living Plc and Dominus Group.

The project will offer 713 beds close to Hammersmith Broadway station: the site is accessible to a wide range of universities including Imperial College London, University of Roehampton and Kings College London’s Strand Campus, as well as several local Higher Education Institutions.

Scape is intending to let 357 of the 713 rooms under a nominations agreement with a London University at an affordable rate which is capped by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. This will make living in London more accessible for more students. The remaining rooms will be let privately.

The residence will offer workspace and meeting rooms, a cinema, communal kitchens, a gym, roof terrace and bike storage. The building is targeting completion in June 2025, ready for the start of the 2025/26 academic year in September next year.

Scape Living Plc is one part of the of the global Scape brand which has over 30,000 beds under operation and in development across the UK, USA, Australia and Ireland. In 2020, Scape entered into a £500m joint venture with APG Asset Management to deliver purpose-built student accommodation across the UK, where both parties will be deploying significant capital over a number of projects. Scape will also be operator of the assets once built.

Harry Daws, investment director at Scape Living plc, says: “Scape Hammersmith is a continuation of Scape’s journey to provide best-in-class student accommodation and will help to address the significant shortage of high-quality PBSA developments in London. We are thrilled to have partnered with NatWest to deliver this scheme as we continue to build out our significant pipeline of developments across the UK.”