A Bristol-based company, the UK's largest provider of purpose-built student accommodation, running student homes in cities from Bristol and London to Leeds, Manchester and Cardiff.
Unite Students, whose company name is Unite Group, builds, owns and runs student accommodation. Its homes are purpose-built halls of residence, run by Unite itself, and rented to students who study at UK universities. Wikipedia says that in 2024 it housed around 68,000 students in 152 buildings across the UK and is the country's largest provider of this kind of housing. The company works with more than 60 universities and sells about half of its beds through agreements with those universities. The accommodation is not only a roof: it comes with support teams, and one page says the company employs more than 190 Resident Ambassadors.
Wikipedia says Nicholas Porter founded Unite in Bristol in 1991, aged 21, after research with the University of the West of England showed growing demand for student housing. It opened its first London properties in the late 1990s, listed on the stock market in 1999, and grew into Manchester, Liverpool and Portsmouth. In 2014 it renamed itself Unite Students and launched what it calls Home for Success. The company's stated purpose is to give students a home that helps them reach their goals, supported by skilled staff, a collaborative culture and strong university relationships. In 2019 it acquired competitor Liberty Living.
Unite's head office is in Bristol. Its buildings are in London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Durham, Oxford, Cardiff, Bristol and Portsmouth, with some in Scotland, according to Wikipedia. Its careers page mentions a Talent Acquisition Team and Estates Team and gives conflicting counts of properties (152 and over 200), so the exact number is unclear. The company also runs a student support service across six regional teams, which its own purpose page describes.
On people and culture, the company's careers page says it has about 2,000 colleagues, that inclusion is not a tick-box exercise, and that its values are challenge the ordinary, unite as one, lead with heart and stay on point. It says staff delivered over 52,000 hours of training and that it runs a charity match scheme. It also runs the Unite Foundation, a charity set up in 2012, which gives free accommodation to students who are estranged from their families or have been in care; the careers page says 883 scholarships have been awarded. These are the company's own figures.
Jobs at Unite are among the most varied in property because it runs a service as well as owning buildings. There are roles in residence and customer support, student experience, building maintenance, lettings and sales to universities, development and design, finance, legal, technology and sustainability. Many are in the cities where students study, so work exists outside London. The company's website is the place to check current vacancies.
Website: www.unitegroup.com
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