(Reuters) – UK’s Unite Group Plc forecast a 3%-3.5% rental growth for the 2022-23 academic year on Wednesday, as the student housing provider returned to an annual profit on higher occupancy levels and lesser rental discounts.
“Reservations for the 2022/23 academic year areencouraging at 67%, which is ahead of the prior year level of 60%,” the company said, as the pandemic battered the student accommodation sector with many educational institutions shifting to online teaching.
Unite said it was targeting occupancy level of 97% for the 2022-23 academic year, compared with 94% a year prior.
The FTSE 250 company’s profit before tax for the year ended Dec. 31 was 343.1 million pounds ($466.58 million), compared to a 120.1 million pound loss a year earlier.
Unite said it expected to spend about 46.9 million pounds over the next two years as part of cladding works, with 33.5 million pounds of that related to wholly-owned properties.
($1 = 0.7353 pounds)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
