Work to start on "City Living" student accommodation

Demolition work will start next month to clear a site earmarked for a new accommodation block providing rooms for 400 students. The new building will be called "City Living", and will be the first of a total of four new planned blocks across London.

London has a total  of 260,000 full-time students, with 90,000 coming from overseas, but the city currently has purpose-built accommodation for 16% of this number. Finsbury Park has for many years been a popular area for students to live during termtime, being close to the northern campuses of London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University and The University of the Arts.

The four sites across London will provide 1,850 student beds when complete, and the long-term plan is to build a total of 4,000 new rooms. Private equity firm Carlyle, a group with experience building student property in The Netherlands and Belgium, will be funding the work which will be carried out by Generation Estates.

Construction in Finsbury Park will start shortly, and work on all four sites should be complete by September 2013.