Property developer Vita Ventures has appointed Create Construction to develop a £14m six-storey student scheme in Bristol city-centre.

Once completed the 33,000 sq. ft development will have 132 studio rooms, including 17 penthouses. It will also feature communal leisure, study and relaxation areas. Work on the project has begun and it is due for completion ready for the 2014/2015 academic year.

It is the second time the two North West companies have collaborated on a project of this nature as Create is currently undertaking a £17m Vita Student refurbishment scheme in Exeter, called Portland House.

The project is located on Colston Avenue in the centre of Bristol and has been specifically designed to accommodate the city's burgeoning student population and cater for the undersupply of beds. There are currently only 13,000 beds for 49,000 students in the region.

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Vita Ventures’ investment model is structured so the 132 studios are sold to private investors and then let-out on their behalf to students, resulting in the buyer benefitting from both rental income and capital appreciation. Since it was launched for sales in July 2013 all the rooms have been sold and many have already been reserved by students for the 2014/15 academic year, demonstrating the growing appetite for this type of premium property.

Trevor Moore, CEO of Vita Ventures, said: "The refurbishment work that Create Construction has undertaken so far at Portland House is exemplary so it was an obvious choice to appoint them to this project. We are confident that they will deliver it to the standard our students and investors expect, within the timescale specified.

"We have a forecast to double our number of student beds in 2014 so we need to acquire a large amount of land to fulfil this. We have agents actively scouring the UK for suitable sites near to the top Russell Group universities, with Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow currently under consideration."

(CD/IT)