King’s College London today reveals a £400 million, five-year, redevelopment programme that involves the disposal of £200 million of property in the centre of the capital and the establishment of a million-square-foot campus at Canada Water in Southwark.

Part of the Waterloo campus with potential for conversion into an office or residential tower will be sold, as will three-and-a-half acres of residential land around Kidderpore Avenue in Hampstead. The college, with 25,000 students and more than 6000 staff, had an income of £550 million last year. It “would like to get on to at least half” the 14.6-acre former Daily Mail printworks site at Canada Water, now owned by British Land, says Ralph Luck, director of real estate.

The university gained permission in September to build 770 student flats on the nearby 3.7-acre Mulberry Business Park. “Our aspiration for Harmsworth Quay is to build 2000-plus student residences and 35,000 square metres of academic, research, teaching and offices,” says Luck, the former director of property at the Olympic Delivery Authority who took up his newly created post at King’s in April.

“We have a development programme of some £400 million and a disposal programme in excess of £200 million,” he adds. If current negotiations with British Land succeed, a science-based campus of a million square feet will be built by 2018. The property giant does not want to say too much during negotiations. But it does say: “We have been working with Kings to try to establish how we can deliver teaching and administrative facilities as part of a mixed-use, vibrant town centre on the site.”

British Land owns the nearby Surrey Quays shopping centre, where a 100,000 sq ft extension is planned. University expansion is being driven by a forecast 15%-20% rise in student numbers by 2018.

More than 400,000 students are doing courses in London, with more than 100,000 of them from overseas. They expect purpose-built accommodation, says Luck. Fortunately, King’s is also building 717 student flats in Denmark Hill.

...while the LSE lands an expansion prospect

Just across The Strand from King’s College lies the London School of Economics.

This week the LSE announced that architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners had been selected to design a £90 million Centre for Global Sciences.

The LSE has paid £112.5 million for two parcels of land on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, giving it room to expand. The second purchase, completed in September, was a £75 million deal to buy Cancer Research UK’s centre. The LSE outbid developers looking to build luxury homes, which tells you all you need to know about the buying power of the university sector.

“This means that the LSE now has almost total ownership of the southern edge of Lincoln’s Inn Fields — future-proofing itself for further expansion, if required,” said agent BNP Paribas, which acquired the two sites.