A write-down of S$232m (£131.6m) due to Covid-19 may have pushed Singapore Press Holdings to report a S$83.7m loss for the year ended 31 August, but it has failed to damped the Singapore-listed investor’s appetite for UK purpose-built student accommodation.
The media and property business, which in late 2019 acquired the 2,383-bed Student Castle portfolio for £448m, has seen its UK portfolio more than double between 2019 and 2020 from S$634.5m to S$1.4bn. It now has some 7,723 beds across 18 cities in the UK and Germany and said its was “on track” to achieve its goal of being a sizeable player in the UK PBSA sector.
Revenues from its student accommodation portfolio increased by S$22.1m or 60.6% due to a full year of revenue from acquisitions, including Student Castle. However, SPH’s property business as a whole saw revenues of S$228.6m in 2019 turn into a loss of S$82.4m in 2020, caused largely by a write-down in valuation.
But the loss and the disruption caused to the student housing sector as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has not deterred SPH from investing further in the UK. The group said it would progressively take over and manage in-house the entire PBSA portfolio in 2021 and that “armed with full operating capabilities, SPH will continue to look for new opportunities in this sector”.
See also: Singapore Press Holdings outlines UK PBSA strategy
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