A £25m LUXURY student accommodation block in Winchester has been completed ahead of the new academic year.

The new block for 239 students at Riverside Way was a joint venture between student accommodation and build to rent investors, Student Residence Investments Limited and property and construction group Osborne.

The news comes just after a controversial plan for more than 130 student beds in Greenhill Road by JLW Winchester was rejected by councillors at the Winchester City Council Planning Committee.

The £25M consists of en-suite rooms with shared kitchens and self-contained studios. The property has been designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent sustainability rating and is practically fully let for the 2017/18 academic year.

Originally an industrial site, the new building was designed by Architecture PLB. The property is owned by a joint venture between Student Residence Investments Limited (SRIL) and Osborne, with Amro Real Estate Partners overseeing the investment on behalf of SRIL.

Development director at Amro Real Estate Partners Ami Kotecha said: “The student accommodation sector has come a long way over the last few years. There is a much greater emphasis on the provision of convenience and lifestyle facilities, in much the same way as in the Build to Rent sector. Riverside Way brings a new level of luxury to student living in Winchester with large and airy bedrooms, state of the art facilities and high quality, modern fit outs.”

The new building comes with 100MB high speed WiFi and a communal area which includes student co-working spaces, a leisure and gaming area, a creative workshop zone that caters for students of Art & Design courses at the Winchester School of Art.

The building also has a dedicated parcel store with a drop off and collection service, to meet the needs of students who rely on online shopping for a significant proportion of their retail consumption.