£1bn joint venture deal struck to develop thousands of student flats
A student accommodation development company – founded by two Yorkshire property entrepreneurs – has agreed a £1bn partnership with Prescient Capital to deliver over 6,500 student bedrooms in the next three to five years.
Leeds-based Urbanite Living was founded by Timothy Smith and Daniel Newett in 2017 to create high quality student accommodation. It is the company behind the plans for the remainder of the Yorkshire Post site on Wellington Street in Leeds.
The business has built up a development pipeline of over 3,500 student bedrooms across Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leicester as well as Leeds and York, and is now targeting further student accommodation schemes in key university cities across the UK.
The GDV of these secured developments is more than £500m and the partnership with Prescient Capital will enable the pipeline to grow rapidly.
Prescient Capital is a private equity investor in UK Real Estate, Renewables and Technology and has acquired a 50% stake in Urbanite to deliver the ambitious growth plans in the student sector.
Plans for the remainder of the Yorkshire Post site were presented to Leeds City Council Plans panel last week.
The DLA Architecture designed proposals include three buildings of up to 40-storeys that will deliver approximately 1,550 student bedrooms, as well as around 320 Built to Rent homes and public realm improvements including a micro-forest and public art.
Urbanite Living’s first scheme was delivered during 2018 in York for an 108 student bedroom scheme, which is now in the process of being extended by another 81 bedrooms and will be completed next year.
The company has recently acquired the 456-bed Sugarwell Court development from Leeds Becket University. It is also on site with a 127-bed development in Sheffield that will be completed later this year.
Smith said: “The partnership with Prescient Capital will build on the strong foundations and pipeline that we have currently in place and will enable us to expand our development portfolio across the UK.
“We are passionate about delivering high-quality student accommodation and environments in key cities and getting young people involved in all aspects of the design and concept at an early stage.
“We are thrilled that our plans for the Yorkshire Post site in Leeds were positively received by council members and are now working up a detailed planning application to transform this gateway site.”
