• Swindon & Wiltshire Property
• Monday May 11 2026

Temple Quarter student accommodation development opportunity launched

Commercial real estate giant CBRE has launched a student accommodation development opportunity in Temple Quarter.

Freestone Island, a 1.063-acre freehold site, is already prepared for a new developer to build on.

The scheme comprises six self-contained studios and 494 ensuite cluster rooms across three blocks, along with approximately 4,800 sq ft of ground floor commercial space with amenity provision including a gym and studio, cinema and karaoke booth, multiple study areas, communal lounges and four external courtyards.

There is a Section 73 minor amendment application in progress seeking a further uplift to 518 bedspaces or feasibility options to consider an alternative mix of studios and cluster rooms, offering purchasers meaningful flexibility to shape the product for the direct-let market.

The site is located directly opposite the University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, which will open this September, bringing 4,600 students and 650 staff into the immediate area.

The TQEC forms the centrepiece of Bristol Temple Quarter, the UK’s largest urban regeneration project, transforming over 130 hectares of brownfield land into an innovation and education district for the city.

Nic Rumble, senior director at CBRE, said: “It’s extremely rare to be able to offer such a well-located, consented PBSA opportunity that is immediately ready to commence construction in Bristol.

“The demolition has been completed, the site is remediated, Gateway 2 approved, and even part of the CIL payments have been paid.

“This is as build-ready as you can get. Couple that with a super-prime location directly opposite a brand new university campus, in the middle of the UK’s largest regeneration project, and you have a site that we hope will be of interest to the development markets.

“The structural demand for student accommodation in Bristol is not going away; this is a rare opportunity to step straight into it.”

Bristol is the sixth largest higher education market in the UK outside London, with a combined full-time student population of 58,190 across the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, a figure that has grown by more than 54 per cent since 2012.

Despite this, the city has only 21,250 purpose-built student beds in operation, leaving an estimated unmet demand of more than 31,700 students who cannot access PBSA due to a lack of supply.

The property is being offered for sale by informal tender.