Unite Group PLC (UTGPF) Q1 2026 Sales/Trading Call Transcript

Joe Lister
CEO & Member of Board

Good morning, everybody, and thank you all for joining the call. Since we last spoke, we’ve taken action across a number of areas and encouraged to see signs of early progress. And today, we will be updating on current trading, taking you through progress with disposals and flagging the appointment of an adviser to accelerate the repositioning of our portfolio and updating on our Q1 valuations for USAF and LSAV. So starting with trading. Overall, we are trading in line with the guidance we shared in February. We’re currently 74% reserved for ’26, ’27 academic year against 76% at the same time last year. And these reservations are supportive of our rental growth guidance of the 2% to 3% range.

Direct-let sales are responding to our productivity. We’re currently tracking about 1 to 2 points above the direct-let market at this stage. And the market is competitive, but we are benefiting from our mid-market price points and our productivity on pricing. We’re keeping our powder dry on incentives at the moment, but we could see some more promotional activity later in the year, and we are having success at selling beds that have been handed back to us by universities.

Nominations are currently at 54%. We’ve continued to see lower-tier universities be more cautious in their approach and managing their financial exposure. It is fairly normal that we see ups and downs in nominations agreements at this stage, and we could see norms move further by plus or minus 1 to 2 points by the end of the cycle. On the positive side, high-tariff universities are