THE appetite for student accommodation in Glasgow has been underscored after one of the city's newer schemes was sold for almost £12 million.
The Ballet School, the former home of Scottish Ballet, has been offloaded by local developer CCG and snapped up by stock market listed Empiric Student Property.
The property, which has 103 studio flats with wifi and underfloor heating throughout, has been fully let since it opened in September 2013.
Annual prices there start at £8,415 and run to almost £12,500 for a larger room.
Empiric said was keen to purchase the property as it is also developing a further student site at the former Willowbank Primary School, which is adjacent to the Ballet School.
That 178-bed scheme is expected to be operating in time for the start of the academic year in 2016, which would give Empiric 281-bedrooms in the West End of the city.
Chief executive Paul Hadaway said: "The Ballet School is ideally located between the city centre and the Gilmorehill campus of the University of Glasgow, one of the top three universities in Scotland.
"Glasgow hosts the largest student population in Scotland and, therefore, represents an ideal city for Empiric to implement a clustering strategy, targeting 300-400 beds which can be operationally combined, to the benefit of both the resident students and the group.
"The acquisition is in line with Empiric's investment criteria and returns profile."
The company is believed to be considering further deals in Glasgow.
In Scotland it also owns the 56-bedroom Centro Court in Aberdeen. Along with that it is involved in the development of the Buccleuch Street site in Edinburgh, which is expected to be open in May next year.
Scottish Ballet moved from the site, where it had been based since 1979, to a new purpose built headquarters at The Tramway in 2009.
Investors have shown an appetite to invest in Scotland recently with research from estate agency Savills last year suggesting Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow were among the cities in the UK with the largest needs for more purpose built student accommodation.
Maven Capital Partners is among the Scottish investment houses which is spending in the sector.
It raised £3m to fund the conversion of the former Claremont House office block in the West End of Glasgow and is also involved in a development next to the King's Theatre on Bath Street.
Managing partner Bill Nixon recently said: "There is continuing demand in the city for student accommodation, and there are investors who are very interested in acquiring the finished product once we have gone through the development phase and got the asset fully occupied."
Noting that students expect a much standard of accommodation than previous generations, Mr Nixon added: "Glasgow as a city has seen a shortage of supply.
"That said there are a number of developments underway in the city, but for the moment there is still unsatisfied demand.
"Most purpose built student accommodation units in Glasgow are fully occupied, and certainly Claremont House we were more than 90 per cent full fairly quickly."
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