£1bn joint venture announced for Yorkshire student development

A student accommodation development company, founded by two prominent Yorkshire property entrepreneurs, has announced 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 and is the company behind the plans for the remainder of the Yorkshire Post site on Wellington Street in Leeds.

The company 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 in excess of £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 per cent 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, with encouraging feedback from Councillors for the DLA Architecture designed-development.

The 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 major public realm improvements including a micro-forest and public art.

Timothy Smith from Urbanite Living commented: “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.”

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