Leeds wins bid to keep UKREiiF in the city for future years

Following an exploration of potential host cities, the organisers behind The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum have announced that it will remain in Leeds for the foreseeable future.

Formed in 2022 UKREiiF has quickly become the UK’s leading platform in the regeneration, development and property sectors – becoming Europe’s fastest growing industry event. The event is set to gather 10,000-12,000 delegates in 2024 and raise £20m for the local economy through visitor spend – and due to this growth UKREiiF’s team had explored potential options including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

But following this exploratory process the organisers have announced Leeds will host the event into the future in addition to hosting the event in the city between May 21st and 23rd in 2024.

Councillor James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council, said:

“We are delighted that UKREiiF is staying here in Leeds and we are proud to be able to enable this Leeds based scale up, as it continues to realise its rapid growth. UKREiiF represents a significant platform for highlighting the city and our dedication to fostering innovation, inclusive growth and resilience. It demonstrates the art of the possible when private and public sector come together, working in tandem with industry leaders and fellow innovators, to drive positive change with a more diverse delegation.

“Hosting the largest real estate conference of its kind in the UK is a testament to the growing reputation of Leeds and West Yorkshire allowing us to showcase our region’s vibrant economy, our regeneration market, and development opportunities; together with our ambitions for a healthier, greener and inclusive future for the city.

“We’ve been blown away by the positive feedback about the city from the many thousands of delegates we have welcomed each year, and we look forward to extending a warm Yorkshire welcome to many more, as UKREiiF continues to go from strength to strength. People knew about us, and the success of the last few years, but they really know our story now and we are delighted to showcase this work, our changing city and the ambitions we have for the future.”

Mayor of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Tracy Brabin said of the announcement:

“It’s fantastic news that UKREiiF will make Leeds its home for the years to come. It’s a real recognition that West Yorkshire can match the scale, ambition and momentum needed to host this global event. The economic impact of UKREiiF directly benefits local people in our mission to build a stronger, brighter region.”

Chief executive of UKREiiF, Keith Griffiths said:

“I must firstly thank all of the shortlisted cities for their interest in hosting UKREiiF – we saw some excellent venues and potential sites for UKREiiF and any of them could have successfully hosted UKREiiF, especially with the support of the fantastic teams we met along the way showing how important public and private sector collaboration is. But overall we felt Leeds, with some really exciting propositions for growth, was the right city to host UKREiiF building on what we expect to be an excellent event in 2024.”

Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, added:

“A big thank you to the UKREiiF team, the council and WYCA teams, the Royal Armouries and our Team Leeds partners for all the hard work and effort that has gone into hosting the first two UKREiiF events and also the bid process. As always in the city, our power through partnership and focus on collaboration has proved very successful and we are looking forward to welcoming more delegates in 2024 and seeing the conference grow bigger and better in the next few years.”

Nathan Spencer, director of UKREiiF, added:

“A key focus for UKREiiF is to become more than just an event which is hosted in a city – our work in the build up to and at UKREiiF in 2023 saw us generate £12.1m in local economic impact, create £2.25m of social impact for local communities, and inspire the next generation of people and businesses to have a voice in our future communities with our focus on D&I and social value. We have some really exciting plans for 2024 to reach thousands of young people and early careers professionals – and the city and regional partners are very much behind these core principles that UKREiiF has, and we’re delighted therefore to build on this over the next few years with this commitment to Leeds.”

Ben Campbell, venue director, Royal Armouries said:

“I am both proud and excited that following a comprehensive bid process we have retained UKREiiF for the foreseeable future; this is a huge success for the city of Leeds and wider Yorkshire region and we are excited to be working with and supporting UKREiiF on the event and their annual ambitions for growth.

“The success of the event has been phenomenal, and we very much look forward to welcoming thousands more delegates to our venue and site over the coming years.”

Further details can be found at www.ukreiif.com