£11m Huddersfield student development acquired by Empiric Student Property

Empiric Student Property has secured a forward funded development in Huddersfield, known as Oldgate House, for a total investment of £11.

The student development is currently being developed into a prime, purpose-built student accommodation location.

Empiric, based in London, acquired the freehold to the site on Oldgate, which is only a five minute walk from the main campus of the University of Huddersfield and very close to the city centre.

The development features 179 beds across a range of different size studios, together with communal space for students.

Oldgate House is also within a 10 minute walk to Snow Island, another of Empiric’s developments which is due to begin operations in September 2015. When the two schemes are complete, the firm will be provided with an opportunity to combine operations and achieving economies of scale.

Forshaw Land and Property Group Limited will undertake the redevelopment of the property on behalf of Empiric.

The full £11m investment to purchase the development will be used in stages in accordance with strategic milestones.

As is typical for Empiric’s forward funded assets, the firm will receive an income return from the developer payable as a rental receipt during the development period.

The property is scheduled for to be completed by summer 2016, in time for the 2016/17 academic year.

Paul Hadaway, chief executive of Empiric Student Property, said: “The University of Huddersfield has won a number of awards in recent years including The Times Higher Education University of the Year, and student numbers are now over 19,000 (HESA 13/14).

“However, there is an increasing shortage of high-quality student accommodation in the town. Oldgate House is ideally located both for the university and local amenities and we expect the scheme to generate attractive returns in line with our stated investment parameters.”

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