Independent, investigative, in the public interest  Upgrade to paid

NEWS

Student landlord submits new plans for Union Road HMO back garden block following appeal failure

Application for six bedroom, single storey purpose built student accommodation block made on site of refused ten bedroom, two storey scheme in garden of thirteen bedroom shared student house.

Leigh Curtis

A new application to build a student accommodation block in the back garden of a thirteen bedroom Union Road student House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) has been submitted to Exeter City Council.

It follows refusal of an earlier application for the same site, upheld by a planning inspector in October.

The new proposal, submitted earlier this month, is for a single storey 136 square metre block with six bedrooms and a separate living, kitchen and dining area.

The original proposal was for a two storey, ten bedroom block with the same footprint. It received 61 public objections without a single supportive response.

It was refused by council planning officers in December last year on grounds including its scale and intensity, the impact it would have on neighbours and its incompatibility with the St James Neighbourhood Plan.

3D view of original development proposal 3D view of original development proposal. Image: Ercle.

The applicant appealed the refusal in May this year, before separately applying to build a six bedroom two storey student accommodation block in the back garden of another student HMO he also owns in Pennsylvania Road.

In the October decision dismissing the appeal, the planning inspector said the development would be “uncharacteristically prominent, bulky and of a density and massing that would be incompatible with the immediate and surrounding townscape setting”.

The Pennsylvania Road application prompted 26 public objections. It was refused by planning officers last month.

3D view of revised development proposal 3D view of revised development proposal. Image: Ercle.

The applicant owns a total of twelve licensed HMOs in Exeter, providing 91 bedrooms, according to the city council register. At a typical rent of £500pcm per bedroom, the annual income from these houses would be around £550,000 each year.

It is not known whether the applicant also owns unlicensed HMOs in the city, or how many if so.

Unlicensed HMOs make up the bulk of residential housing that is being used for student accommodation in Exeter, but the city council does not know how many there are or where they are all located.

Independent, investigative, in the public interest

Exeter Observer publishes the independent investigative journalism our local democracy needs.

It can do this because it is the city's only news organisation that doesn't have to answer to corporate advertisers, remote shareholders or those in power.

Instead, its not-for-profit public interest business model is simple.

It depends on readers like you to sustain our reporting by contributing a small amount each month.

Lots of people currently chip in like this, but it's not enough to cover our costs. We need more paying subscribers to keep publishing.

135 of the 300 readers we need have signed up so far. Help us reach our goal by joining them today.

Support our work from less than £2/week and get access to exclusive premium content and more.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

Exeter College and Petroc campuses map

Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West

Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.

Proposed Clarendon House student block aerial view

Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval

Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.

On Our Radar
Still from How the Little Mole Got His Trousers

SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2025

Nature’s Resources

A programme of six short animated films explores the relationship between humans and non-human species.

EXETER PHOENIX

Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

EXETER CASTLE