Placing of Peabody holding

Unite Group PLC
5 April 2002

THE UNITE GROUP PLC
5 APRIL 2002


                              The Unite Group plc
                     Placing of Peabody Trust shareholding

The Unite Group plc ('Unite' or 'the Company') the UK's leading specialist
provider of student and NHS key worker accommodation services is pleased to
announce that Teather & Greenwood has today placed, at a price of £2.865 per
share, 6,783,945 ordinary shares, representing the entire share holding of
Peabody Trust, with a range of new and existing institutional investors in a
transaction that was oversubscribed.  Accordingly, Peabody Trust has informed
the Company that it no longer has a notifiable interest in the issued share
capital of Unite.

On 14 March 2002 Unite announced the acquisition of the 50% stake in Peabody
UNITE which it did not already own, from its London joint venture partner
Peabody Trust, for a consideration of £19.9m.  The consideration was satisfied
by a cash payment of £0.5m and the issue of 6,783,945 new ordinary shares of 25p
each in Unite (representing 9.07% of the issued ordinary share capital of the
Company).

The shares were issued to Peabody Trust fully paid at a price of £2.865 per
share.

Commenting on the transaction, Nicholas Porter, Chief Executive of Unite, said:

'I am delighted that the placing of the Peabody Trust holding was both
oversubscribed and that we have been able to attract the support of new
institutional investors as well as the continued support of our existing
shareholders.  This follows on from the announcement yesterday of the successful
launch of our £273.5 million securitisation issue'.


CONTACTS:

Nicholas Porter
Chief Executive, The Unite Group plc            0117 907 8100

Richard Thompson
Director, Teather & Greenwood Limited           020 7426 9073


END

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