Compton House in Northampton is a former office building undergoing extensive refurbishment to provide state of the art studio accommodation of 94 units and associated common areas.  It is aimed at the student market.

Lindsey from Northampton SU Lets, who will be managing much of the accommodation, kindly gave us a tour of inspection.

At this stage, it is very much a building site with a mock-up of the finished self-contained accommodation on show.

It is very impressive in its total self-containment but it will be expensive and for the first time in this town full rent will be charged for 52 weeks.  However, apart from an additional payment for use of laundry facilities everything is included, even access to the on-site gym. Each room will have a small double bed, built in wardrobe, desk and possibly a small sofa.  There is a well-equipped kitchenette to include microwave/combi oven, 2 ring hob and small fridge/freezer.  Equally, a nice shower room is en suite.

The location couldn’t be more central but traffic flow is 24/7 with the accompanying downside of noise, pollution etc.

In some respects, this is such a different experience to the individual homes provided by many landlords on our Network that the impact will be felt more in terms of numbers taken out of our market, rather than choice of property. 

Clearly this accommodation model has been successful in University towns elsewhere and it will compete with St. John’s, although totally self-contained by comparison.  Beautiful as it is, I couldn’t help feeling that as the door closed on the outside world, the student would be isolated with only Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram for company.

Jenny Cross

NSLN Committee Member

30.03.17    

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