The rain and damp conditions didn’t help the start of it. But walk into any coffee shop around Leeds Dock and Leeds city Centre last week and you’d have thought the sun was splitting the stones. Every table taken. Conversations about housing targets, development finance, and the Renters’ Rights Act bouncing off the walls. Bar stools occupied by people pulling up spreadsheets on their phones, debating affordability ratios over a pint.
UKREiiF does this to Leeds. For three days in May, the city becomes the beating heart of UK property and infrastructure. And this year felt different. Busier, yes – but more than that. There was an energy that suggested people weren’t just attending because it was in the diary. They were there because they needed to be.
The Chancellor Shows Up
When Rachel Reeves stands up to announce multi-million-pound City Investment Funds for Leeds city centre – 3,500 homes in the Temple District, 570 at West End Riverside, 246 at Meadow Lane – you know the government’s putting money where the speeches are.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook followed with detail on the Planning and Infrastructure Act, the revised NPPF coming this summer, and the £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme. These weren’t vague promises about future policy. They were delivery updates with dates and funding allocations attached.
And the room was full. Not polite-full. Properly rammed.
What People Were Actually Talking About
Across three days of meetings with solicitors, valuers and lenders such as YBS, Lumora, Shawbrook Bank, Lloyds, and a handful of private lenders, the same topics kept surfacing.
The housing crisis – not as an abstract problem, but as a commercial reality affecting every conversation. Berkeley’s 867-home Peckham scheme getting rejected despite London’s record-low delivery. Developers asking where they’re supposed to build if brownfield regeneration keeps getting blocked on heritage grounds.
The Renters’ Rights Act – which came into force on 1 May, literally days before the conference. Some landlords tightening rental criteria, 44% considering accelerating rent increases. But also – and this surprised a few people – 84% of professional landlords still planning to expand their portfolios. The legislative shift hasn’t caused the exodus some predicted. It’s changed behavior, certainly. But the professionals are adapting rather than abandoning.
Viability – the word on everyone’s lips. Not whether projects stack up at 8% returns, but whether they stack up at all when affordable housing requirements, heritage constraints, and rising build costs collide. One roundtable explored whether the proposed National Housing Bank could de-risk enough to attract institutional investment. Another looked at Modern Methods of Construction to solve delivery at scale.
These weren’t theoretical discussions. They were practical, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about what actually works when the numbers need to add up and the planning inspector’s looking at heritage impact over housing need.
The Contrast With Last Year
Last year’s UKREiiF had good energy. Optimism that rates might ease, that planning reform might land, that supply and demand would find some kind of equilibrium.
This year felt different. Not pessimistic – busier, if anything. But the optimism’s been replaced with something more focused. People aren’t waiting for conditions to improve. They’re working out how to operate in the conditions that exist.
House prices fell 0.9% between April 2025 and April 2026. Sentiment in the sector dropped 6.4 percentage points year-on-year. But 63.9% of professionals still expect to increase development and investment activity over the next twelve months.
That gap between sentiment and intention is telling. The market’s slow. Everyone knows it. But slow doesn’t mean stopped, and it doesn’t mean there’s nothing worth doing.
Why It Matters That We Were There
We function as a broker with banking experience – nearly 50 years of it between the three of us. That means we’re having conversations with lenders about what they’re actually lending on, not what their marketing says they’ll consider.
Those meetings with lenders weren’t courtesy catch-ups. They were working sessions. What’s moving? What’s stuck? Where’s appetite shifting? Which products are they pushing, and which ones have they quietly pulled back from?
When a client asks us whether their development project can get funded in the current environment, we’re not guessing based on a rate sheet. We’re applying what we heard in a meeting room in Leeds three days earlier, from the person who’ll be looking at the application.
That’s the value of being connected to the conversations that matter. Not networking for the sake of it. Listening to where the market’s actually moving so we can tell clients whether their opportunity’s viable before they waste time on something that won’t fly.
Leeds Won’t Host This Forever
UKREiiF moves around. It has been confirmed that Leeds will host in 2027, but it might be Manchester next in 2028, Birmingham the year after. Leeds gets it while the city’s pushing ahead with its own regeneration – 2,000 homes at Leeds South Village with £16m from Homes England, a proposed Mayoral Development Zone covering the city centre to unlock 20,000 homes.
But whether it’s here or elsewhere, the event’s become the place where funding decisions get shaped before they’re announced. Where lenders signal appetite before it hits the broker portals. Where developers, councils, housing associations, and government representatives work out what’s actually deliverable rather than what sounds good in a press release.
The property sector’s navigating a difficult stretch. Affordability’s stretched, viability’s tight, legislative change is live, and global economic uncertainty isn’t helping. But there are still opportunities for businesses that know where to look and who to ask.
We’ll be back next year. Wherever it is. Rain or shine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Has the Renters’ Rights Act caused landlords to exit the market in large numbers?
A: Not according to the data discussed at UKREiiF. While some landlords are adjusting their approach – 59% tightening rental criteria, 44% considering earlier rent increases – 84% of professional landlords still plan to expand their portfolios. The legislation’s changed behaviour rather than caused a mass exodus. The professionals are adapting their operations rather than abandoning the sector.
Q: Is property development finance still available in the current market?
A: Yes, but lenders are being more selective about what they’ll back. The meetings we had with YBS, Lumora, Shawbrook, Lloyds, and private lenders all confirmed appetite still exists – but viability matters more than ever. Projects need to demonstrate they stack up with current build costs, affordable housing requirements, and realistic sales assumptions. Knowing which lenders are actively lending on which project types makes the difference between time wasted and funding secured.
Q: Why does the housing crisis persist when the government’s announcing investment?
A: The challenge isn’t just money – it’s delivery. Berkeley’s 867-home Peckham scheme was rejected despite London’s housing crisis, with heritage concerns outweighing housing need. Planning reform, NPPF revisions, and funding programmes are all moving forward, but the system still creates friction between what’s needed and what’s actually approved. Projects that navigate this successfully tend to be the ones with early planning engagement and realistic expectations about constraints.
Q: Should property businesses wait for market conditions to improve before pursuing opportunities?
A: The mood at UKREiiF suggested otherwise. Sentiment’s down 6.4 percentage points year-on-year, but nearly two-thirds of professionals are still increasing investment activity. The businesses gaining ground aren’t waiting for perfect conditions – they’re working out how to operate profitably in current conditions. That usually means being selective about opportunities, realistic about margins, and well-informed about where lender appetite actually sits.
Q: What’s the benefit of attending events like UKREiiF for businesses needing finance?
A: For brokers like us, it’s intelligence. We’re hearing directly from lenders about appetite shifts, product changes, and sector focus before that information reaches public channels. For businesses needing finance, the benefit is indirect – when you work with advisors who’ve just spent three days in working meetings with the people who’ll assess your application, you’re getting current market reality rather than outdated assumptions about what might be possible.
About Andy Bissett
Andy Bissett is Founder & Director of Shadowfax Funding Solutions, working with businesses across invoice finance, commercial property, and specialist funding. Twenty years in commercial banking at RBS, Yorkshire Bank, and Aldermore taught him that funding decisions get made based on what lenders are actually thinking – not what their marketing says. If your business needs financing structured around current market reality rather than last year’s assumptions, there are better approaches than hoping the first application lands.