In the company’s trading update, a reservation rate of 65% was revealed for the 2025/26 academic year.

According to Empiric, this is ahead of the wider market but behind those achieved in the 2024/25 academic year.

Despite this, the company is confident about its prospects and expects like-for-like growth in average weekly rents of between 4% and 5% for the academic year ahead.

“Like other PBSA operators, we are experiencing a normalisation in our sales pattern, with a later booking profile than that we’ve experienced in more recent post pandemic years,” said Duncan Garrood, CEO at Empiric.

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“The attractiveness of the UK’s higher education sector continues to drive strong demand for PBSA, particularly toward higher-tariff university cities to which we are primarily aligned.

“It is this dynamic that provides confidence we will again deliver rental growth ahead of inflation.”

Following a share placing in Autumn 2024, the company has been active in investing this into its portfolio.

This has included the acquisition of Selly Oak Apartments in Birmingham and the rollout of an exclusive postgraduate product in Bath, Sheffield and Southampton with plans to open these in September 2025.

As of 31 March 2025, Empiric’s pro forma EPRA LTV was 27.7%, with cash and available facilities of £73.6m.

The weighted average cost of drawn debt was 4.5%. The weighted average term to maturity stood at 4.5 years, with the next material refinancing due in 2028.