Agreement length Beds 2025/26 % Income 2025/26 Single year 6,039 17% 2-5 years 14,659 40% 6-10 years 4,151 12% 11-20 years 6,728 16% 20+ years 6,083 15% Total 37,660 100% UK students account for 72% of our customers for 2025/26 (2024/25: 72%), making up a large proportion of the beds under nomination agreements with universities. This represents a significant increase in our weighting to UK students over recent years, compared to 60% immediately prior to the pandemic, and reflects our success in growing the proportion of beds under nomination agreements and retaining second- and third-year students who might have historically moved into the HMO sector. Postgraduates make up 16% of our customer base and non- first year undergraduates accounted for a further 21% of our bookings for the 2025/26 academic year (2024/25: 17% and 27%), reflecting the greater proportion of beds let through nomination agreements which predominantly house first- year students and fewer sales to returning UK students. The acquisition of Empiric broadens our offering to postgraduate and non-first year undergraduate students, who typically seek greater independence, and supports our strategy of increasing the segmentation of our customer offer to capture market share from the traditional HMO sector. Occupancy by type and domicile by academic year Direct-let Nominations UK China EU Non-EU Total 2022/23 52% 24% 14% 2% 7% 99% 2023/24 53% 24% 13% 2% 8% 100% 2024/25 57% 22% 13% 1% 5% 98% 2025/26 59% 17% 12% 1% 6% 95% ACQUISITION OF EMPIRIC Empiric’s Hello Student brand delivered occupancy of 89% for the 2025/26 academic year and rental growth of 4.5%. This letting performance was below our expectations at the time of appraising the acquisition, reflecting more challenging recent leasing conditions. As a result, the Empiric portfolio is expected to contribute lower income and earnings in the first half of FY2026. We are working closely with the Empiric team to drive performance across the portfolio. We have started marketing Hello Student properties to our customers in the 15 cities where our portfolios overlap and added their properties to our international distribution channels. Our priority is to return the Empiric portfolio to full occupancy over the next two sales cycles. We expect leasing performance for Empiric to be broadly in line with the Unite Students direct-let portfolio for 2026/27. TAKING ACTION ON COSTS Property operating costs increased by 10% in 2025 (2024: 8%), principally driven by higher staff costs, increased marketing activity and additional central and other costs. Higher staff costs reflect our commitment to the Real Living Wage, resulting in an average 5% pay increase for city operations staff, as well as increases to employer’s National Insurance contributions. Marketing costs increased due to higher costs of acquisition in a more competitive sales environment. Utility costs were broadly flat compared to the prior year, with increases in charges and levies offset by a reduction in consumption through our continued investment in energy efficiency initiatives. Other cost increases reflected higher council tax costs as a result of lower occupancy in certain cities and increased building insurance premiums. At the end of the year, we reduced our central team costs by approximately 20%, responding to lower income for the 2025/26 academic year. We will maintain an appropriate cost base to reflect the operational performance of the business. These changes support our expectation for flat property and central costs in 2026 for the Unite business (excluding Empiric). Property operating expenses breakdown 2025 £m 2024 £m Change Staff costs (37.2) (34.0) 10% Utilities (30.7) (30.5) 1% Summer cleaning (5.5) (5.3) 4% Marketing (8.3) (7.0) 19% Central costs (20.1) (18.0) 12% Other (32.3) (27.1) 19% Property operating expenses (134.2) (121.9) 10% Technology enhancing customer experience and margins Our technology upgrade programme delivered significant milestones in 2025 as we launched a new customer management system, finance system and learning platform for our people. The final phase of delivery in 2026 will deliver new booking and property management platforms. We expect to incur a further £10 million of costs in 2026 as the programme concludes. We expect to achieve a payback on our investment through enhanced utilisation of our portfolio and cost efficiencies, which will increase our EBIT margin by around 1% over the medium term, including £7 million p.a. of cost savings. PERFORMANCE REVIEW Operations review continued THE UNITE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2025 26 STRATEGIC REPORT