The 2017 Student Market Review by Knight Frank has just been released. Below are some of the company’s findings regarding the health of the student accommodation sector.

Over the last decade, even during the global economic crisis and its aftermath, Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) has been one of only a few asset classes to deliver positive rental growth every year.

The impact of the UK’s vote to leave the EU is causing a degree of economic uncertainty, but Knight Frank believes that the importance of higher education remains unaffected by economic cycles or political turmoil, adding that ‘the fundamentals of the student accommodation sector remain in place – this is a structurally undersupplied market servicing a thriving higher education sector.’

The lack of concern over Brexit is backed up by data. ‘EU students face uncertainty about the implication that Brexit may have on their ability to study in the UK, however the latest data from UCAS shows that the number of EU students placed at UK universities for the 2016/17 academic year rose by nearly 8% year-on-year.’