Living

The demand for purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) continues to be strong in the UK, and Northern Ireland is no different, with a market that is maturing as more and more schemes come out of the ground. Whilst developers do face ongoing construction, funding and operational costs, student numbers continue to swell and the lack of supply of student beds demonstrates a continued demand for quality purpose built accommodation. Faced with uncertain living costs, students are increasingly finding cost certainty in fixed price cost models over the private rented sector.

With the maturing of the PBSA models, developers and investors are looking beyond student accommodation to sustainable and best in class Build to Rent and Co-living schemes in Northern Ireland. The development and funding models are not without their challenges but against a backdrop of ever growing housing need and ambitious targets to encourage city living and regeneration, we expect to see continued growth and opportunities in this sector.

Our dedicated team at Carson McDowell provides strategic advice to the landowners, developers, investors and operators of PBSA, Buy to Rent and Co-Living schemes. Against a developing regulatory and planning environment, the broad knowledge of our team of experts ensures that we can deliver pragmatic, market leading commercial advice and anticipate likely challenges and solutions at an early stage. As advisor to international and local clients, we understand innately the key issues and barriers to deliverability and funding and work in collaboration with our clients to resolve these effectively.