Unite Group Reports Strong Summer Lettings Progress, Reaffirms Earnings Guidance Amid Strategic Portfolio Shift

Unite Group’s latest trading update is one of those announcements that has a bit of both: solid operational progress on one side, softer property valuations on the other. For retail investors, the main takeaway is fairly straightforward – demand for its student rooms is holding up, earnings guidance is unchanged, and management is pushing ahead with a reshaping of the portfolio.

That matters because Unite is not just a property owner. It is a student accommodation REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, which means investors care about both the cash earnings from rents and the value of the underlying buildings. This update gives us fresh information on both.

Unite Group trading update: the key numbers investors need to know

Metric | Latest | Previous / Comparator
Unite beds reserved for 2026/27 | 86% | 85% for 2025/26
Expected 2026/27 occupancy | 94-96% | Previously lower end of 93-96%
Expected rental growth | 1-2% | Previously 2-3%
Like-for-like income growth guidance | 0-2% | Unchanged
FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance | 41.5-43.0p | Reiterated
Hello Student beds reserved | 71% | 61% for 2025/26
Share buybacks completed | £165 million | 32.7 million shares at 505p average
USAF Q2 valuation move | (2.2%) | Portfolio value £2,928 million
LSAV Q2 valuation move | (3.7%) | Portfolio value £1,959 million

Student accommodation demand looks resilient, but pricing is doing more of the work

The strongest part of the update is reservations. Unite has 86% of beds reserved for the 2026/27 academic year, slightly ahead of the 85% achieved for 2025/26. In a market where investors worry about affordability and university demand, that is a decent result.

There is a shift in the mix, though. Beds let to universities under nomination agreements fell to 53% from 58%, while direct-let sales rose to 33% from 27%. Nomination agreements are deals where universities effectively channel students into rooms, so a lower percentage there can imply Unite is leaning more on its own selling power.

Management says recent direct-let sales have been strong, helped by targeted pricing adjustments in selected markets. In plain English, that means some discounts or softer pricing have likely been used to keep rooms moving. That is fine if it protects occupancy, but it also explains why rental growth expectations have come down.

Unite earnings guidance stays intact despite lower rent growth expectations

This is probably the most important balancing act in the whole statement. Unite still expects 0-2% like-for-like income growth for 2026/27, but the drivers have changed. Occupancy expectations have improved to 94-96%, while expected rental growth has eased to 1-2% from 2-3%.

That tells you management is prioritising full buildings over aggressive pricing. I think that is sensible. Empty rooms are expensive, and in student housing a strong occupancy rate often matters more than squeezing every last pound out of rent.

Just as importantly, FY2026 adjusted earnings per share guidance is unchanged at 41.5-43.0p. That suggests trading in the first half has been steady enough to absorb some pressure from pricing and the transition around the Renters’ Rights Act.

Hello Student and Empiric integration is improving, but still not yet at Unite levels

The Empiric acquisition story is quietly moving in the right direction. Across the Hello Student portfolio, 71% of beds are reserved for 2026/27, up from 61% a year earlier. Occupancy is now expected to be at least 87%, ahead of the previous guidance of around 85%, although still below the 89% achieved in 2025/26.

So this is better, but not perfect. Unite says performance has improved thanks to upgrades to Empiric’s sales platform and targeted price reductions. Again, higher reservations are welcome, but they are not coming for free.

The cost side looks more encouraging. Unite says it has moved Empiric’s city teams onto its platform, closed Empiric’s head office, and remains confident on £9 million of cost synergies in 2026 and £17 million per annum from 2027 onwards. If delivered, that is the sort of integration progress investors want to see after a takeover.

Renters’ Rights Act impact looks manageable for PBSA, but there was a near-term earnings drag

There is also a regulatory angle here. The Renters’ Rights Act came into effect on 1 May 2026, but all new PBSA tenancies – purpose-built student accommodation tenancies – for 2026/27 will be exempt.

The snag is the transition period for existing 2025/26 tenancies between May and September 2026. Students could serve notice and leave with two months’ notice, and Unite confirms some did exactly that. The company says this impact is already reflected in earnings guidance, which is reassuring, but it is still a reminder that regulation can create short-term noise even when the long-term business model remains intact.

Portfolio disposals and £165 million of buybacks show active capital allocation

Unite is not sitting still with its assets. It is sticking with guidance to deliver £300-400 million of disposals in 2026 on a Unite share basis, and it has either completed or is marketing more than £600 million of assets.

That includes £130 million of completed disposals year-to-date at a weighted average yield of 4.8%, plus roughly £500 million of assets being actively marketed. These include lower-growth assets, non-PBSA properties, development land and planned Empiric disposals.

I think this is strategically important. Management is trying to tilt the business towards stronger universities and a higher-quality portfolio. If executed well, that could mean steadier occupancy, better long-term rental growth and fewer awkward assets dragging on returns.

The other capital allocation point is the buyback. Unite completed £165 million of share repurchases in the first half, buying 32.7 million shares, or about 6% of issued share capital, at an average cost of 505p. Buybacks can be attractive when management believes the shares are trading below intrinsic value, although the RNS does not explicitly say that.

Unite property valuations fall as higher yields pressure student accommodation assets

Now for the weaker side of the announcement. Property valuations moved lower again in the second quarter, and the reason is classic property market maths: higher yields. A property yield is the income return investors demand from an asset, and when that yield rises, property values tend to fall.

USAF’s portfolio was valued at £2,928 million at 30 June 2026, down 2.2% like-for-like in Q2. LSAV’s portfolio was valued at £1,959 million, down 3.7% like-for-like in Q2. For the first half, capital growth was down 3.9% for USAF and 6.0% for LSAV.

USAF saw 10 basis points of yield expansion in Q2 to a weighted average yield of 5.4%, while LSAV saw 16 basis points of expansion to 5.0%. Income was broadly stable to slightly down, so this was mainly a valuation reset rather than a collapse in trading.

Still, investors should not brush this aside. Unite says it expects the valuation deficit for the Group’s investment properties in H1 2026 to be 6.0-6.5%. That is significant because falling asset values can weigh on net asset value and investor sentiment, even if cash earnings remain solid.

Hawthorne House completion adds a positive operational milestone

There was one more useful nugget in the update. The 719-bed Hawthorne House project in London completed main construction in June, and the company is now working with the Building Safety Regulator to secure the approval needed before occupation.

The encouraging part is that it will be fully occupied on opening. Half the beds are backed by a long-term nomination agreement with the University of the Arts London, and the academic space has a 25-year lease to the Government. That gives the project a level of visibility investors usually like.

What this Unite Group RNS means for retail investors

My read is that this is a decent operational update wrapped inside a softer property valuation backdrop. The positive story is strong reservations, stable earnings guidance, improving Empiric integration and active portfolio reshaping. The negative story is that rental growth expectations have been trimmed and asset values are still moving lower as yields rise.

For retail investors, the big question is which matters more. Right now, I would say the earnings resilience is doing a good job of offsetting the valuation pressure. If Unite can keep occupancy high, deliver its disposals, and pull through the promised synergies, the medium-term case still looks intact.

But it is not a clean, everything-is-going-up kind of update. This is a company managing through a tougher valuation environment by leaning on operations, discipline and portfolio quality. That is credible – and probably the right playbook – but investors should expect the market to keep a close eye on those property valuations.