KARAN KHANNA CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER GROWING DEMAND FOR STUDENT ACCOMMODATION The UK’s universities attract young people from around the world for the quality of learning and life experience they offer. This demand for university education and our accommodation is structurally supported with the UK population of 18-year-olds forecast to grow 11% (99,000) by 2030 (Source: ONS). We are also seeing a return to growth in international demand for UK Higher Education following disruption in 2024 caused by visa changes. The latest UCAS data shows 2% growth in applications for the 2025/26 academic year from UK 18-year-olds, our core customer demographic, which is supported by population growth and strong application rates. Resilient student demand Overall, the undergraduate intake for 2024/25 increased by 2% to 565,000 (2023/24: 554,000) with a record number of UK 18-year-olds starting courses. We have been deliberate in aligning our portfolio to high- and medium-tariff universities, where the number of accepted applicants grew by 4% for the 2024/25 academic year. In contrast, lower tariff universities saw a 1% reduction in acceptances, continuing the trend of the past decade where higher tariff universities have captured a growing share of student demand. Our portfolio is 93% aligned to Russell Group markets, where the number of accepted students rose by 8% YoY and is now 16% above pre-pandemic levels. Recruitment of international students was disrupted for 2024/25 by the removal of visas for family members of postgraduate taught students which became effective in January 2024, and uncertainty created by the Government’s review of the Graduate Route in May 2024. This led to a 14% reduction in visas issued to international students in 2024, ranging from a 5% reduction for Russell Group universities to c.25% fewer for other universities. Encouragingly, more recent data indicates a return to growth in international student numbers with January 2025 intake starts up 14% year-over-year and 3% growth in international applications through UCAS for the 2025/26 academic year. Strong demand from universities We have maintained a high proportion of income let to universities, with 38,326 beds (57% of total) provided under nomination agreements for 2024/25 (2023/24: 37,143 and 53%). The increase in the percentage of beds under nomination agreements reflects universities’ growing reliance on private providers to meet their accommodation needs and our position as the partner of choice. We saw further improvement in our university NPS score to +37 (2023: +32), recognising the strength of our partnerships, sector-leading student welfare offer, and thought leadership in the sector. The unexpired term of our nomination agreements is 5.8 years, unchanged on 2023/24. A balance of nomination agreements and direct-let beds provides the benefit of having income secured by universities, as well as the ability to offer rooms to re-bookers and postgraduates and determine market pricing on an annual basis. We expect to maintain nomination agreements between 50-60% of beds going forward providing sigificant income visibility. 67% of our nomination agreements, by income, are multi-year and therefore benefit from annual fixed or inflation-linked uplifts based on RPI or CPI. The remaining agreements are single year, and we achieved a renewal rate of 81% with universities for 2024/25 where we offered to renew (2023/24: 89%). As inflation moderates, we expect annual rental uplifts will return closer to historical levels of 0.5- 1.0% above CPI inflation. Agreement length Beds 2024/25 % Income 2024/25 Single year 12,812 33% 2-5 years 8,586 23% 6-10 years 4,308 11% 11-20 years 6,398 17% 20+ years 6,222 16% Total 38,326 100% THE UNITE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2024 25