Financial giant pays £35 million for Edinburgh student flats in ‘peaceful’ canal-side setting
“The supply-demand dynamic in the city is still highly favourable to developers and this scheme is in a prime location” – Euan Kelly, Knight Frank
A canal-side student development in Edinburgh that will eventually provide more than 150 beds has changed hands for over £35 million as the sector continues to boom.
Lower Gilmore Place, located in the city’s Fountainbridge area, has been acquired off market by Legal & General’s Managed Fund from Glencairn Properties. Property consultancy Knight Frank acted for the buyer, while Ryden represented the selling party.
The so-called purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) scheme, which overlooks the Union Canal, consists of 151 student beds split over two phases. The first, 8 Lower Gilmore Place, comprises 69 beds and achieved practical completion during the summer of 2023. Meanwhile, the second phase has been forward funded and will provide a further 82 student beds upon completion.
Glencairn Properties assembled and developed the site and has been retained to deliver its second phase.
The Managed Fund is the largest open-ended balanced pension fund within financial giant L&G’s asset management division and acquired almost £500m worth of assets in 2024.
Rob Codling, senior fund manager at Managed Fund, said: “This is the first direct-let PBSA acquisition for L&G’s Managed Fund and is a fantastic opportunity to acquire a prime scheme in central Edinburgh. PBSA and ‘operational real estate’ sectors continue to be a key growth area for the fund and this acquisition enables it to benefit from operational income as well as acquiring a best-in-class, newly developed scheme.”
Euan Kelly, capital markets partner at Knight Frank Edinburgh, said: “The deal represented the culmination of a lot of hard work. The sale of Lower Gilmore Place underlines the strength and depth of investor demand for PBSA assets in Edinburgh. The supply-demand dynamic in the city is still highly favourable to developers and this scheme is in a prime location between the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Napier.
“More widely, transactions like this point to the level of investor interest we are seeing across Russell Group university cities, given the resilience of demand from students for places at these institutions. As such, we expect more PBSA deals to follow during 2025.”
Daryl Teague, managing director of Glencairn Properties, added: “Having started the site assembly in 2017, I am proud - after a long journey - to sell our Lower Gilmore Place development to L&G. PBSA has been, and will continue to act as, a catalyst for regeneration in the Fountainbridge area, bringing life to once industrial uses.
“Focusing on the living sectors, Glencairn has delivered an institutionally prime PBSA development, offering peaceful canal-side living a skimming stone away from the city centre. We would like to thank our team at Brodies and Ryden, along with Knight Frank and L&G, for pulling this over the line in record time.”
Despite criticism over the proliferation of student accommodation schemes in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and setbacks for some proposals, several major projects have been given the green light. In August, plans for The Ard, a 374-foot, 36-storey tower block that will house hundreds of students in the Charing Cross area of Glasgow, were given the go ahead.
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