Developer secures £18.8m funding for Glasgow student housing scheme

The scheme will be fewer than 10 minutes away from the University of Glasgow by bike or bus, and it will have further transport links.

It is currently under construction by main contractor CCG, with completion scheduled ahead of the 2027-28 academic year.

Once the scheme has completed, it will be operated by True Student. The site initially held planning consent for a residential scheme granted in 2022.

But following a strategic review of market demand, Kelvin Properties submitted a revised planning application for a PBSA scheme to meet the demands of international and postgraduate students, which was approved in 2024.

According to Kelvin Properties, demand for PBSA schemes has continued to grow across the UK, driven by rising numbers of domestic and international students seeking housing close to universities.

For students, PBSA schemes offer benefits including contemporary, self-contained apartments, access to shared social spaces and study facilities, 24-hour security and management and prime locations near universities and major transport links.

For investors and developers, PBSA schemes provide stable, resilient income streams, strong demand in high-growth university cities and fully managed, high-performing properties.

“Securing development finance in the current environment reflects confidence in both the project and the wider Glasgow market,” Stephen McKechnie, founder of Kelvin Properties, said.

“We undertook a review of the Glasgow market before repositioning the site and the fundamentals were clear.

“There is real need for more student housing as student numbers have continued to grow, particularly among the international and postgraduate cohorts, while supply remains constrained in key locations like Glasgow’s West End.”

Graeme Steel, relationship director for real estate and housing at Bank of Scotland, said: “PBSA remains a resilient and important sector, helping to meet growing demand, support the city’s universities and ease pressure on the wider housing market.”

Last week, a report by Knight Frank found that investors committed £4.3bn to the PBSA market in 2025, just shy of the 10-year average of £4.5bn. It also found that investors had spent nearly £880m on UK PBSA in the final quarter of 2025.

A total of 50,250 PBSA beds were under construction across the UK, with the largest numbers in London at 14,600, Bristol at 5,000, Glasgow at 4,300, Coventry at 3,600 and Manchester at 3,500. Together, this accounted for 62% of all development activity across the UK.

According to UCAS data, for the 2025-26 academic cycle, the number of undergraduate students accepted onto university courses in the UK went up by 2.3% year-on-year, totalling 577,725 students.