The spread of coronavirus across the world has yet to impact on students planning to attend universities around London, according to GCP Student Living.
The firm has reported in its half-year results that its bookings for the forthcoming academic year “are in line with 2019/20 and residents for the current academic year continue to occupy their rooms. Student applications for full time higher education for the 2020/21 academic year have increased by 1.2% year-on-year”.
However, chairman Robert Peto said the board and its investment manager continue to monitor “the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak both in terms of the ability of students to attend their universities, and therefore occupy student rooms, and in terms of the wellbeing of the residents in the company’s buildings”.
In addition, the business said it would continue to monitor relations between the US, the UK and China, which could “impact the global mobility of Chinese students as well as their choice of destination”.
String results
GCP Student Living posted strong results for the six months to the end of December, with EPRA NAV up 23% to £795m, compared with the same period in 2018.
EPRA NAV per share increased by 5.6% from 165.52p per share the end of June 2019 to 174.71p per share at the end of December.
GCP Student Living said this was primarily due to increases in portfolio valuation off the back of strong rental growth and yield compression.
The company’s portfolio of 11 assets providing around 4,100 beds was valued £987.3m at 31 December 2019, up 17% from £841.5m at the end of 2018. Net initial yield for the operational portfolio was 4.42%.
Rental income for the six months totalled £24.6m and pretax profit was £47.8m. LTV at the end of 2019 was 19%.
Peto said: “The company’s focus on assets in and around London has delivered another interim period of strong NAV performance. This performance can be attributed to strong year-on-year student rental growth in excess of both inflation and the national average for student accommodation across a fully occupied portfolio of assets.
“The company’s annualised total shareholder return since its IPO in 2013 of 15.6% has substantially exceeded the 8-10% target at launch and is more than double the return of the FTSE All-Share Index over that period.
“The attraction of the UK, and London in particular, for domestic and global students alike remains evident.”
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