Unite sells Hawthorne House academy school in London for £40.7m

Unite Group has sold the academy school at its Hawthorne House site in London for £40.7m. The buyer has not been named. The sale forms part of the company's disposals strategy.

Unite keeps Hawthorne House itself, the purpose-built student accommodation scheme with 719 rooms. All of the rooms are let for the 2026-27 academic year. More than half of the beds are covered by a long-term nomination agreement with the University of the Arts London.

The money from the sale will first go towards paying down Unite's debt.

The school was among the assets worth £225m that were under offer when Unite issued its Q3 trading update. In its Q3 results statement, the company repeated that it expects to sell £300m to £400m of assets this year. About £200m of sales had been completed by 30 September.

Chief executive Joe Lister said the sale was "evidence of our capital discipline and proactive capital recycling programme". He added that Unite remains on track to deliver £300m to £400m of disposals this year.

Unite reported a net revaluation loss of £530.1m in its interim results for the six months to the end of June. For 2025 it recorded pre-tax profits of £97.6m, down 78% on the year before, after a revaluation loss of £73.7m.