More student flats to be built in central Glasgow
- Published
An artist's impression shows the student flats above the Glasgow skyline
A new high-rise block of student flats could be built in Glasgow city centre after developers secured planning permission for 321 studio apartments.
The proposal, approved by the city council, will see the complex constructed at the junction of St Vincent Street and Pitt Street.
The development replaces previously approved plans to build a hotel or serviced apartments on the site.
It is the third student accommodation plan to be approved in recent months.
A demand assessment, prepared on behalf of the applicants Artisan Real Estate, found that while Glasgow has "an established purpose-built student accommodation market, it does not provide the amount of good quality accommodation required to house" the city's students.
It added even "under cautious growth scenarios," supply of available student housing was unlikely to meet demand.
The applicants were previously granted permission to build a 248-bed hotel and 248 serviced apartments on the site but neither project went ahead.
Artisan's application said the serviced apartments plan could not be funded because of restrictions imposed on occupancy, while the hotel plan was abandoned because of the impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector.
Having reassessed the market, it had decided to partner with Homes for Student to provide high quality student accommodation to meet the needs of the city, it said.
An empty mid-1980s office block at 292 to 298 St Vincent Street will be knocked down to make way for the development. The application stated it "essentially follows the same design of the proposed hotel scheme".
Reporting provided by Drew Sandelands at the Local Democracy Reporting Service.