Urbanite Announces JV With Prescient Capital

Specialists in purpose-built student accommodation, Urbanite has announced a new £1bn joint venture with private equity firm Prescient Capital. The partnership aims to deliver over 6,500 students beds within the next 3-5 years.

Urbanite Living, which is based in Leeds, was founded in 2017 by Timothy Smith and Daniel Newett. The current portfolio comprises one operational asset in York, which hosts 108 student beds, although this is soon to be expanded with assets that are at various stages of the planning and development cycles.

The developers are currently seeking permission to build around 1,635 student flats on Wellington Street, which had been previously been home to the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post until 2014.

Currently, the development pipeline for Urbanite sits at over 3,500 beds across student properties in Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester and York.

Private equity investors Prescient Capital, which focuses on real estate, renewables and technology, has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Urbanite to support its growth plans in the student sector.

Timothy Smith, co-founder at Urbanite 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.

"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."