At a time when the traditional property sectors are witnessing more challenging conditions, the group said its decision to establish a £1bn UK student accommodation fund had given the company a new income stream.

Delivering the strategy the group said establishing Unite as a developer and co-investing asset manager had been an important step in the group's evolution.

A Unite spokeswoman told builderandengineer.co.uk that the new business model was transforming the company.

She said: “The fund we set up and completed at the beginning of this year is 50% invested with other UK real estate investors which gives us £500m of further investment capital, which in turn increases our capacity to bid for bigger projects. What that means is that we are a traditional property developer and a co-investing asset manager, so we manage both financial and operational aspects.”

On the back of the results, the group has secured planning permission for 11 new schemes, of which five are in London and six are in other key market cities across the rest of the UK.

Demand for UK Higher Education remains strong, as evidenced by applications to full-time undergraduate courses for the forthcoming 2007/08 academic year, which were up 5.8% year on year when last reported by UCAS on 12 September 2007.