Student flats proposed for Brighton office building

An outdated Brighton office building could be demolished and turned into 138 student flats.

The developer Matsim Properties said that its plans could “replace the need for approximately 27 student HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) which can be converted back to residential”.

Matsim wants to create the student flats at Richmond House, in Richmond Road, Brighton, behind the Sainsbury’s store at the Lewes Road Gyratory.

A similar scheme to convert the existing building for 144 student rooms at the site was turned down in May.

Matsim said that about 37,000 students were at Sussex University and Brighton University including 5,200 international students from 150 countries.

But Matsim said that there was a shortfall in student housing, adding: “In Brighton and Hove there are five full-time undergrads for every bedspace.”

The company said that the number of all-student homes in the city had more than doubled from 1,365 at the 2001 census to 2,873 at the census in 2011. And that the numbers were expected to continue to grow.

It said that the two universities’ students contributed £65 million a year to the local economy.

Matsim said: “Some areas of the city have high concentrations of HMOs that have led to neighbourhoods being dominated by the student population.

“The impacts of a large number of students living in an area can be more easily mitigated when they are living in purpose-built managed accommodation rather than unmanaged HMOs which have significant impacts on residential amenity for non-student neighbours.”

The company said that its plans for Richmond House would be managed 24 hours a day by on-site staff  and be purpose built to address these concerns.

The student flats have been pre-let to Kaplan International, an international college working in a long-term partnership with Brighton University to create affordable accommodation for overseas students.

The case for replacing the offices with student flats did not address concerns about parking which neighbours raised when objecting to Matsim’s earlier failed application.

Matsim’s arguments were set out in a document giving supporting information for its new planning application.

The company hopes that having on-site staff to manage the premises and students will reassure worried neighbours.

It also said that the conversion would help “ease the shortage of affordable housing in other parts of Brighton and Hove”.

And it would regenerate “unattractive offices with a development which seeks to preserve and enhance the surrounding conservation area”.

Previously objectors and some members of the Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Committee criticised the earlier design.

The developer said that the new scheme would create about 100 jobs during construction with a number of full-time jobs on-site when building work was finished.

It cited a recent report on student housing which said: “The recruitment of new full-time students is expected to increase gradually over the coming years and as a result there is expected to be a continuous shortfall of bed spaces in purpose-built student accommodation despite recent developments in the city.

“The councils believe there is a need to reduce the over-concentration of HMOs in certain neighbourhoods by promoting and enabling the appropriate development of purpose-built student accommodation at suitable locations within the city that will appeal to preferences of students in terms of location and accommodation.”

Whether the neighbours and planning committee members agree remains to be seen.