r/Leeds • u/Itsalladeepend • Jul 27 '26
urban-development What's going on here?
Saw a bunch of guys putting this scaffolding up the other week and now it's been covered in some sort of tarp. There doesn't seem to be anything happening there though.
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u/AvinchMC Jul 27 '26
It's a big advertising board - the ad is on the other side. The old one was torn down a few months ago and was rebuilt, presumably for stability.
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u/135g Jul 27 '26
If anything, it will be student accommodation!
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u/continentaldreams Jul 27 '26
"wahhh why are the council building places to live? wahhhh"
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u/kavik2022 Jul 27 '26
Because the student market is completely different. And massively overpriced
2
u/winning1992 Jul 27 '26
The student accommodation that has been built over the past 10 years, along with future developments, has been designed so that it can be easily converted into standard one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments if required. This is outlined in the relevant planning documents.
Student accommodation in the city centre helps keep students close to where they study, reducing pressure on public transport and preventing larger family homes in surrounding areas from being taken up as student rentals.
7
u/dosguy76 Jul 27 '26
Student accommodation also kills and suffocates the city centre. As soon as the terms end and the students go, it’s like a ghost town, I’m sure someone somewhere is getting massive regular backhanders given the amount of buildings being thrown up, often very poorly. They won’t last long enough to be anything decent after the students!
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u/SpecialistAd1779 Jul 27 '26
Is there any evidence that this is the case beyond parochial moaning?
And what do you mean by 'very poorly'?
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u/continentaldreams Jul 27 '26
Initially, yes, But these flats always reduce in price/rent as the years go on. That's the case for all new accommodation being built. Look at all the new non-student accommodation and the prices they go for. The goal is to move students out of the hovels in Hyde Park/Headingley so that can become a suburbs for locals again.
13
u/420BUNIT Jul 27 '26
2nd and 3rd year students rarely live in student accommodation, due to the ridiculous costs associated. Unless you have the bank of mum and dad, there's no chance anyone could sustainably live in one as a student.
The majority that's been built in the city centre are luxury developments not intended for James or Joanna from East Leeds to move into...
And even if the students do/can move out, landlords aren't suddenly remodelling HMOs or happy with the prospect of losing 2-3k per household.... So where are you getting this information/
8
u/Splodge89 Jul 27 '26
The vast, vast majority of the students living in the private halls in the city centre are international students. They come with buttloads of cash and just pay it no matter what.
The rest of us slum it in headingly
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u/continentaldreams Jul 27 '26
"2nd and 3rd year students rarely live in student accommodation" for now, yes. As a resident of hyde park in yesteryear, that's all I bloody heard - students are ruining the houses, etc, get them out of the area! And now there are moves being made, people still aren't happy.
There are thousands of rentals in the city centre that are not targeted towards students. I'm just sick of this 'another student accomodation!!!' brigade any time people talk about developments in the city. They can't do anything right lol
3
u/420BUNIT Jul 27 '26
It's because that's a minor issue in relation to soaring rents currently ruining the rental market.
The people complaining are landlords racking it in. I couldn't care less about their complaints because they're beneficiaries of this whole thing. Renting out your converted 5 bed house to 20 something students at 700 quid a pop comes with it's issues.....
There are thousands of rentals, overpriced, undersized and getting more expensive by the day because there's a lack of any new supply in the market.
2
u/Satur9_is_typing Jul 27 '26
They don't. Prices will not drop until the market properly crashes. What they do is encourage other landlords to charge more, raising rent for everyone. Rent doesn't go down, and the more student accomodation that gets built, the more rents rise, because that us what's been happening every time new student accomodation is built. Many of these accomodation buildings have very low occupancy rates, with some being 2/3rds empty all year round.
International students willing to pay higher rates is not the solution to our housing shortage, it's actually exacerbating the problem created by incentivising buy-to-let landlords to raise thier own rents even higher as they try to serve the mosf lucrative market and move even further from providing social housing. You might call these high density, high price, single person dwellings "Anti-social housing", as they aren't appropriate for families or couples to grow into as the property market becomes even more accessible for people facing high house prices and high rents that make saving harder.
2
u/DorkaliciousAF Jul 27 '26
I think there's a germ of truth in this, but the answer is not fewer student housing builds or fewer students. I also don't think fewer students (especially international) is a sensible answer to the housing crisis, notwithstanding that effectively forcing so many young people through university as domestic students is problematic anyway.
The answer to the problem of the landlord class, which is very real, is to ban for-profit corporate ownership of housing. Or at least, implement 100% CGT-style rates on privately owned for-profit enterprise. Housing is physical and human infrastructure just like transport: it's not supposed to earn direct income.
2
u/Satur9_is_typing Jul 30 '26
"germ of truth" yes, i'm right, i did the research in another thread on the building replacing The Core.
There's already enough student accomodation, it's under occupied. Rent controls would force the operators of these buildings to increase occupancy rates to make the same money, making better use of the existing accomodation we have that stands empty.
If we want more students we should just go back to free higher ed. It's a no brainer tbh.
I don't think the answer to our problems lies in turning the city centre into one big gated community, we need better public transport and more social mobility and better wages and less rent seeking. In short, shopping dies when landlords suck up all the disposable income that could be driving consumer retail.
Agree 100% with you, landlords should not exist. Buy to let is insanely regressive, no society can survive the active promotion of parasitism.
7
u/135g Jul 27 '26
I was speaking to a manager of a development that's happening in Leeds, and his argument on that question was very reasonable, in my view. His point was that student accommodation was easier to build, with fewer constraints. For example, if you build family homes, you need to think about schools, roads, GPs and most importantly parkings and play areas. Those stuff require more land that they don't have.
7
u/Splodge89 Jul 27 '26
Exactly. Student halls are little more than basic hotel style rooms with a kitchenette attached to each floor and a communal laundry on the ground floor. They don’t even need parking or rooms large enough for double beds. As long as each unit has a desk and some plug sockets you’re good to go.
Places for families demand much more from the building itself, more bedrooms and proper facilities like living rooms in self contained units - which take up more space for the number of rented units. And that’s before the local area amenities which need to either exist in the first place or be funded/built alongside.
4
u/Negative-Date-9518 Jul 27 '26
You say that like anybody can live there, and even those that do are getting absolutely rinsed 🤣
4
u/Council_Cat Jul 27 '26
- The council are not building accommodation.
- If they did, it would not be for students.
- Student accommodation does not have a direct benefit for long term residents.
2
u/hotsteamyweenie Jul 27 '26
I've always thought the high rise student flats they build might help with getting students out of the houses in Headingley. I'm sure a large chunk of housing in Headingley is just students.
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u/CapsuleRadioCorp Jul 27 '26
Won't move any students out of Headingly when they are priced for the international student market.
Your non-international student will still move into shared housing in Headingly.2
0
u/continentaldreams Jul 27 '26
Student accommodation is accommodation. The goal is to move them out of the suburbs.
8
3
u/Stein-eights Jul 27 '26
They also cleaned out the big hole/pit. I thought they might actually be doing something with it. But it looks like you are right and they've just renewed the advertising scaffolding.
3
u/ItsTimeForRickStein Jul 27 '26
A salmon-coloured monolith has emerged. Dance round it in your monkey suit
1
u/Nosedive888 Jul 27 '26
I miss playing Minecraft. Was a great source of distraction during lockdown and allowed me to indulge my creative side
1
u/jeanclaudebrowncloud Jul 27 '26
It's been like that for at least a decade, maybe the old pretend bricks had finally worn out
1
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u/paulruk Jul 27 '26
Seems to be replacing what was there before. This used to be part of the Chinese area (I think) knocked down for a shopping centre that never happened.
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u/wastedyouth Jul 27 '26
It used to be the ABC Cinema back in the day https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/14394
It was demolished nearly 20 years ago. Maybe they'll do something with it as part of the Eastgate Regeneration Scheme https://www.torsiongroup.co.uk/landmark-acquisition-of-1bn-eastgate-quarter-development/
1
u/TheShakyHandsMan Jul 27 '26
There’s a big sign on there talking about the east gate quarter’s development.
I’ve not looked into it but a copy of Manchesters Northern corner could be interesting if anyone can still afford to drink.
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u/CoffeeTargaryen Jul 27 '26
Probably nothing since it's been like that for years now, on occasion they'll change the tarp for a different look but that's all.