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Urban living: Repurposing our town centres and meeting our housing needs

We have a substantial track record in Build-to-Rent, Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), co-living and for sale residential schemes within town and city centres across the UK.

The urban living sector is playing a growing role in responding to our national housing crisis. At the same time it is underpinning the revival of many of our core urban areas as their economic roles evolve. We are witnessing a significant market and public sector-led drive towards greater diversification in the urban living sector catering for groups with different housing needs.

New residential sectors have emerged over the last few years as part of a drive to increase the supply of housing and diversify the market in order to match supply with demand and improve the offer and choice across all tenures. This includes Build-to-Rent, backed by new sources of finance, including long-term ‘patient’ capital from institutional investors, as well as increasing market activity from the public sector, including partnerships, and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs). Whilst we are witnessing the emergence of new models of urban living through co-living proposals, the demand and need for Purpose Built Student Accommodation remains significant. All tenures of housing contribute to choice and the proper functioning of our housing markets, supporting the continued success of our urban centres.

The distinct characteristics of urban living require a tailored approach to planning strategy. Optimising the contribution of central sites to housing supply, whilst creating high quality new places, requires an in depth understanding of constraints and opportunities in urban environments. The land market is competitive and yet local authority demands, such as affordable housing, are typically high. Sites tend to have a range of constraints, including residential and commercial neighbours and protected heritage assets. High quality architectural design is critical to realising the potential of these sites.

Understanding how to match client goals with local authority priorities is also key to navigating the planning process. With planning consultancy at the core, our service offering is well placed to support the delivery of major urban living schemes. Examples of our broad experience in the sector are shown below, we apply our technical and strategic expertise to optimise development opportunities and respond positively to constraints to secure deliverable planning permissions across all areas of the urban living sector.

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Urban Living brochure

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For more information please contact a member of the team.

 

Our track record