UK & Ireland

Developer Vita Group has invited local residents and interested parties to attend the consultations to hear more about its plans to develop the site, which it says has been 'crying out for investment and regeneration'.

Assetz Capital, the Manchester-based specialist lender, has launched a £100m Planning Assistance Loan product, aimed at supporting the conversion of commercial buildings into residential dwellings.

Design and build firm McAleer & Rushe has won a contract worth in excess of £100m by developer Dominus Real Estate to redevelop an office block into over 700 student accommodation units.

Planning permission has been granted for a new “mixed community” development that will house almost 600 people on the site of a historic car park. There will be 328 student beds and 249 co-living studio flats, as well as a new car park and shops on the ground floor where Evans is currently located.

Tech group Kainos will begin construction work on its new Belfast headquarters in September. The announcement follows a decision by Belfast City Council on Tuesday evening to grant planning permission for two major developments on the former Movie House cinema site on the Dublin Road.

Architects Carmody Groarke and Sheppard Robson’s winning design will see three clustered blocks of 650-students connected at the lower floors and via garden terraces.

A former council office block in Huddersfield could be transformed into student accommodation under new plans. Should plans go ahead, each of the 107 studio apartments will come with an ensuite shower room, larger bed, study area, and hotel-style mood lighting. The development will also have fully wheelchair-accessible apartments.

A business is bidding to add five floors to its base on the edge of the town centre to form an accommodation block for students at the University of Bolton. The applicant, Akbar Patel of AA Properties and Sons Limited, applied for outline planning permission for the site on Thynne Street at the end of last month.

Whitbread PLC has disposed of a Manchester development site to Student Roost, the third-largest student accommodation provider in the UK, as part of the company’s asset intensification strategy.

More than 100 student flats will be brought to a former council office block in Huddersfield town centre. Last week, plans to transform Kirklees House got the green light from Kirklees Council.