Acquisitive MCR adds Preston student duo to portfolio

Foundry Court and Trinity Student Village will add 862 beds to the investor’s £360m Flow Student platform.

MCR Property Group has made the two Preston student schemes its latest acquisitions in 2026 having already snapped up Manchester’s CIS Tower and Mindel House and 11 Bloom Street which together have permission to be converted into 80 flats.

The 438-bed Foundry Court on Brook Street and the 424-bed Trinity Student Village on Great Shaw Street were bought from Isle of Man based Hencap Housing Properties, who acquired them as part of a £53m portfolio acquisition in 2017, according to Land Registry.

The assets will form part of MCR’s expanding Flow Student platform, which is targeting 10,000 beds this year.

Nick Lake, fund director at MCR Property Group, said: “Preston is a logical next step for Flow Student. It is an established university city with strong underlying demand, excellent connectivity and a clear requirement for good-quality, accessible student accommodation.

“Foundry Court and Trinity Student Village give us immediate scale in one of the North West’s key university markets. Both assets are established, well located and offer clear scope for operational improvement, targeted investment and long-term value creation.

“This acquisition is further evidence that we are executing exactly the strategy we set out: acquire assets with strong fundamentals, deploy capital intelligently and use active management to improve performance.”

He added: “Scale matters, but only when it is matched by discipline. We are not growing for the sake of it. We are building a platform with operational depth, clear performance standards and a sharp focus on the student experience.

“With our current acquisition pipeline, we are confident that Flow Student will meet its target of reaching 10,000 beds in 2026. Foundry Court and Trinity Student Village give us a meaningful presence in Preston and represent another important milestone in delivering that plan.”