Plans approved for new student accommodation in Bristol City Centre

A 500-bed student accommodation is set to be built in Bristol Temple Quarter by Unite Students, the UK's largest provider of student accommodation.

The Freestone Island development is set to open for the 2026/27 academic year and has total development costs of £73million. It will provide 4,500 sq. ft of affordable workspace and will be BREEAM Excellent with EPC Ratings of A across the scheme.

The development will be close to its 600-bed Marsh Mills site, on Feeder Road, and the University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, where up to 4,600 students will be based on completion.

Unite Students has partnered up with the University of Bristol through a nomination agreement on the Freestone Island development property to guarantee rooms for the university's students and assist the university in delivering high-quality accommodation to support its growth in the Temple Quarter area of Bristol.

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Temple Quarter is one of the UK's largest regeneration projects, with 130 hectares of land being redeveloped to create a mixed-use community that includes office and commercial space, as well as pedestrianised green areas, alongside Unite Students’ student housing. The Quarter will be a key contributor to the West of England’s economy by creating new homes and jobs and generating income for the local area.

Tom Brewerton, Group Development Director at Unite Students, said: “Bristol is one of the most undersupplied markets in the UK for purpose-built student accommodation with two strong universities and limited availability of land for this type of accommodation. Our Freestone Island project provides Unite Students with the opportunity to grow further in the city by providing high-quality, value-for-money rooms for our students and university partners. We look forward to starting the construction phase as swiftly as possible and delivering the scheme in time for the 2026/27 academic year.

“As the leading provider of PBSA in the UK, we are trusted by parents, students and universities to provide quality, safe and affordable accommodation that supports the entire university experience and are committed to delivering our record development pipeline to meet this demand.”