Legal & General ploughs cash into Stratford student digs

Investor Legal & General is to pump cash into London’s lucrative student digs market, signing a deal to fund new accommodation for 445 people in Stratford, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Legal & General Investment Management will invest £63 million and partner with Alumno Developments on the apartments.

The block, which will also feature a café, artist studios, gym and launderette, will replace a former Esso petrol station in Stratford High Street.

It will be let to post-graduates at Queen Mary University of London.

L&G joins a wave of investors wanting to capitalise on the shortage of student accommodation in the UK — particularly in the capital where developers face competition for land from housebuilders.

Companies including Empiric have recently forked out on buildings for freshers in Hampstead and Twickenham.

According to property agent JLL, purpose-built student digs across the UK in 2016-17 will only reach 555,000, up from 545,000 last year.

With more than 1.7 million full-time students expected this year, that is a ratio of students to available digs of 3:1.