Student Accommodation Conference 2013

Date posted: December 5, 2013

On 4 December 2013 Paul Conway, Associate, attended the prestigious Student Accommodation Conference at Westminster Park Plaza, London. The event was organised by Property Week and supported by a number of sector leaders including CRM Students, Collegiate Student Accommodation, Balfour Beatty, Campus Living Villages, Campus Development Management, Jones Lang LaSalle, Unite and many others.

The four main sessions of the day looked at the changing market place and global trends, and focused on the growing importance of raising the quality of the student experience. There was a clear emphasis on the need to tap into the the ever growing numbers of overseas students. This growth was contrasted with the decline in UK student numbers seen in 2012, which recovered in 2013, but is not expected to increase substantially in the short term.

A series of breakout sessions were held, looking at detailed aspects ranging from planning policy context to innovation in finance models. APLB attended the session on design innovation, which centered on a scheme in Shoreditch, for which the developer had recruited TV designed Naomi Cleaver to create a unique interior.