The challenge
University accommodation sits between two teams that rarely plan together. Recruitment sets the numbers; estates carries the consequence.
How it works
We start with the portfolio as it is: owned, leased and nominated stock, condition, cost and contractual position. Then bed need modelled against your actual recruitment forecast rather than last year’s intake.
Own-versus-partner analysis follows, tested on your balance sheet capacity and appetite for operational risk rather than on the sector average. Rent-setting and affordability policy are examined alongside, because they determine what any delivery route can support.
Output is a strategy with delivery routes costed and sequenced — direct development, joint venture, lease or nominations — and the trade-offs of each set out plainly.
What is included
- Portfolio review across owned, leased and nominated stock
- Bed need modelled against recruitment plans rather than last year’s numbers
- Own-versus-partner analysis
- Rent-setting and affordability policy
- Estate condition and reinvestment priorities
- Delivery route options across direct development, joint venture, lease and nominations
Why RESI Consultancy
[Tailor this section — who uses it, and what changed as a result.]
We have sat on the other side of this work. The people delivering it have run the buildings, written the budgets and defended the numbers to owners — which is a different starting point from a framework and a benchmark.
We take no introduction fee or commission from any operator or vendor, and we do not bid for the work we advise on. Any interest that could be perceived as a conflict is declared in writing before an engagement begins.
Outcomes
Bed need you can trust
Modelled against your own recruitment forecast, not the sector average.
A clear own-or-partner position
Tested on your balance sheet and your appetite for operational risk.
Costed delivery routes
Direct, JV, lease or nominations, sequenced with the trade-offs set out plainly.
A rent policy that holds
Affordability and revenue reconciled rather than argued about annually.
Common questions
Asked often enough to answer here.
Should a university own its accommodation or partner?
It turns on balance sheet capacity, appetite for operational risk, and how central residential life is to the institution’s offer. Ownership retains control and surplus but consumes capital and management attention. Partnering releases both but transfers the resident experience to someone whose incentives differ from yours. The analysis that matters is the one done on your actual recruitment forecast, not the sector average.
Free first conversation
Tell us what is not working.
Most people arrive with a scheme that is not performing, an operator they cannot read, or a board paper due Friday. Any of those is a fine place to start. Thirty minutes, no proposal attached.