The firm this morning revealed it had formed a joint venture with the real estate arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation to plough an extra £330m into developments in London, equivalent to an extra 4,000 bed spaces.

Mark Allan, chief executive of Unite, said: This transaction gives us increased firepower in the London market at a compelling time, allowing us to increase our presence and investment in London, our key target market, where we now expect to have over 13,000 bedrooms within five years.

As part of the deal, Unite will also sell two ongoing projects at Tottenham and Stratford city into the Unite Capital Cities partnership.

Unite and GIC will consider extending the development programme by a further £200m once the existing fund have been committed.