IN Brief:
- Watkin Jones’ Refresh business has been selected to refurbish Central Studios in Reading.
- The project covers an existing purpose-built student accommodation asset acquired by Aprirose in 2025.
- The appointment reflects sustained demand for asset enhancement, retrofit, and operational upgrades in PBSA.
Watkin Jones has been selected by Aprirose Real Estate to refurbish Central Studios, a purpose-built student accommodation scheme in Reading.
The work will be delivered through Refresh, Watkin Jones’ asset enhancement platform. The project covers an existing PBSA building acquired by Aprirose in 2025, with upgrades focused on improving the quality, usability, and commercial performance of the asset.
The refurbishment will include improvements to studio accommodation, circulation space, amenity areas, reception provision, and communal facilities. The scheme forms part of a wider movement among student accommodation owners to reinvest in existing buildings rather than relying entirely on new development.
PBSA remains one of the more active parts of the living-sector market, supported by university demand, international student flows, limited supply in many cities, and pressure on the wider rental market. At the same time, new-build schemes face familiar constraints: planning delays, high borrowing costs, construction inflation, fire-safety requirements, energy performance targets, and competition for suitable sites close to universities and public transport.
Those conditions make refurbishment and repositioning more attractive. Existing PBSA assets can often be upgraded more quickly than new schemes can be brought through planning, funding, construction, and mobilisation. For owners, refurbishment offers a route to strengthen occupancy, improve tenant experience, and protect asset value without waiting for the full development cycle.
The delivery model is still demanding. Student accommodation work is strongly shaped by the academic calendar, with summer windows carrying heavy pressure on strip-out, procurement, installation, snagging, cleaning, and handover. A delay that would be inconvenient in another asset class can have direct revenue consequences if rooms are not ready for the start of term.
Many PBSA refurbishments also involve live or near-live conditions. Even when the main works are programmed during quieter periods, buildings may still contain staff, early arrivals, short-stay users, maintenance teams, or neighbouring residents. Contractors have to manage noise, dust, access, deliveries, waste removal, fire routes, security, and welfare without compromising the operation of the wider asset.
The specification of student accommodation has also changed. Older buildings may need upgrades to heating, ventilation, lighting, bathrooms, kitchens, finishes, access control, digital connectivity, furniture, laundry areas, study space, and shared amenities. Some of those changes are visual, but many affect services, compliance, maintenance access, operational energy, and long-term running costs.
For asset owners, a successful refurbishment is not simply a cosmetic refresh. It can reduce maintenance burden, improve lettability, support higher retention, and make older accommodation more competitive against newer schemes. In cities where student housing supply is constrained, improving existing stock can be as important as adding new beds.
For contractors and specialist suppliers, the PBSA upgrade market creates demand for repeatable packages delivered at speed. Bathroom upgrades, flooring, lighting, decoration, furniture, fire doors, access systems, kitchens, façade repairs, and MEP improvements need consistency across large numbers of rooms and corridors while keeping the programme compressed.
Watkin Jones has been positioning Refresh around this type of asset enhancement work, drawing on the group’s wider experience in student accommodation, build-to-rent, and residential-led development. That background is relevant because PBSA refurbishment sits between construction, operations, and customer experience. The building must be completed to programme, but it must also function efficiently once students move in.
The Reading scheme also aligns with a wider investor preference for improving existing assets where planning and funding conditions make new development harder. Owners are looking more closely at the stock they already hold, particularly where location remains strong but finishes, amenities, or performance need upgrading.
Central Studios is a relatively compact project compared with large PBSA towers, but it sits within a market where refurbishment has become a steady and strategically important workload. The strongest schemes will be those that treat asset enhancement as a performance-led intervention, improving the way the building operates as well as the way it looks.
