PRIVATE-EQUITY group Blackstone will this week unveil a student accommodation development in London as the first step in its radical bid to overhaul university living across Britain.

The real-estate arm of Blackstone is investing £95m in building state-of-the-art housing for 950 students in a tower block near King’s Cross.

The accommodation, which will cost £180 a week for a single room or £140 each for two people to share, includes bedsits tailor-made by a Zurich interior designer, free wireless internet connections, 24-hour security guards, coffee shops, a cinema and a gym.

Stuart Grant, director of Blackstone’s retail group in London, said: “On the whole, student living standards in the UK are awful. We have identified an opportunity to reinvent the student accommodation experience.”

Blackstone has created a company called Nido, which means “nest” in Spanish and Italian, that will manage the block’s day-to-day running, providing, for example, receptionists, cleaners and security.

The 16-storey building, which Blackstone bought from NatWest last year, has 846 ensuite bedrooms with kitchenettes, 50 private apartments, 14 affordable apartments, parking space for 250 bicycles and retail units and commercial space. It will be ready next September.

The block, which represents Blackstone’s first foray into the student-housing sector, will be replicated in university towns and cities as part of a multi-million-pound roll-out. Blackstone plans for all subsequent developments to be built with the same designs under the Nido brand.

A new building has already been bought in London’s Spittalfields, while other sites are being considered in Paris, Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan.

Sources said Blackstone was in talks with some major universities to buy their halls of residence for development. The firm plans to buy and develop the buildings, then sell them in a rolling programme in which each project is held for three to five years.

According to the latest figures, there are 120,000 students looking for accommodation in London, including the freshers starting this week. Despite the demand, there are only 33,000 institutionally owned and operated student beds.

Experts estimate the UK student housing sector to be worth £15 billion and Blackstone is not the first to spot the opportunities. Two weeks ago, Unite Group, Britain’s biggest student accommodation provider, announced interim pre-tax profits of £61.5m for the first half of 2006, up from £9.7m last year.

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