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Sanctuary secures buyer for £400m student housing portfolio
Large housing association Sanctuary has reportedly secured a buyer for its £400m student accommodation portfolio.
Sanctuary secures buyer for £400m student housing portfolio #UKhousingLarge housing association Sanctuary has reportedly secured a buyer for its £400m student accommodation portfolio #UKhousingThe 125,000-home landlord has agreed to sell its student business to Global Student Accommodation (GSA), according to Green Street News, which first reported the deal.
GSA emerged as the victor from a final pool of interested buyers that included private equity group Apollo and Unite, Britain’s biggest student landlord.
Sanctuary launched the sale in October without a price tag, but GSA has agreed to pay in the region of £400m for the 5,500-bed collection.
The portfolio has a rent roll of over £45m and is almost fully let, with occupancy rates at 95% in 2024-25. The sites are occupied with a mix of nomination agreements, direct lets and leases to universities.
Sanctuary Students has 21 properties across the UK. Eight of the sites are in London and the rest are in Bradford, Brighton, Dundee, Falmouth, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Ormskirk, Preston and Salford.
The housing association built up the business through mergers and acquisitions over 15 years. It launched the sale last year to reinvest in its core social housing business.
GSA was founded in 2013 by Nicholas Porter, who previously founded Unite and is known as the “Godfather of student accommodation”.
On top of its UK portfolio, GSA owns student housing in Spain, Italy, Germany, the US, Australia, Japan, Dubai, Ireland and Hong Kong.
Sanctuary and GSA were approached for comment on the sale.
When the sale was launched in October, Ed Lunt, chief financial officer of Sanctuary, said it was being considered “as a route to unlocking and recycling capital for new investment in our existing affordable homes and the communities we serve for the benefit of our customers”.
Sanctuary’s student homes were revalued downwards in May, contributing to the landlord’s £30m pre-tax deficit for 2024-25.
During the last financial year, Sanctuary developed 838 homes, down from 910 in 2024, across social housing, shared ownership and market sale tenures.
By 31 March 2025, 3,307 homes were on-site and in development, compared with 3,218 homes in 2024.
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