Unite hails London resilience

24th Aug 2011 09:43

The economic divide between London and the rest of the UK appears even to extend to the student accommodation sector, judging by Unite Group's half year results.In the six months to 30 June, the company's diluted net asset value climbed to 310p a share from 295p at the beginning of the year. The value of the group's stabilised property portfolio grew by 2.1%, with rental growth in the first six months delivering £15m of net valuation uplift.Despite talk of deep cuts in the university sector, Unite said that 89% of its rooms are reserved for the coming academic year, against 87% at the same last year.The company has also reinstated its interim dividend, with a payout of 5p a share."Reservations for the forthcoming academic year are very strong and we are on track to deliver our target development pipeline of 4,000 beds in London over the next couple of years, which will be significantly accretive to both earnings and NAV," chief executive Mark Allan said."As the shape of changes to university funding becomes clearer, we remain confident that we are positioned to deliver resilient performance and outperform the wider student accommodation sector as a result of our London focus, the high quality of our portfolio and university relationships and our established brand platform."At 10.00am, shares in Unite Group were up by 7% at 163p.