Property development / United Kingdom
We take on the sites that need working out.
Akcel develops student accommodation, rental and residential schemes on constrained urban land — the plots with a retained frontage, a rail boundary or a remediation problem attached.
Who we are
A small team, deliberately.
We are a development company working across five living sectors from a single office. Every scheme is run by the people who appraised it, which is why we take on fewer sites than we could and see each one through to handover.
Most of what we buy has something wrong with it — a difficult level change, a structure worth keeping, a neighbour with a daylight case, ground that needs treating. Those problems are usually the reason the land is available, and working through them properly is where the value is.
How we workEvery site has a version that works. The job is finding it before you commit.
Akcel — development principle| Founded | Registered in England and Wales, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Company number | 10732426 |
| Sectors | PBSA, build to rent, residential, mixed-use, regeneration |
| Geography | London and major UK cities |
Selected projects
Live, consented and completed
Fourteen schemes are live, consented or in planning. Below is a selection across all five sectors.
Sectors
Where we develop
Five sectors, chosen because they share the same discipline: long-term ownership, operational cost and buildings that have to work for decades rather than a sales launch.
Process
Five stages, in order
A site does not move to the next stage until the previous one holds up. It is the only reliable way we have found to avoid consented schemes that never start.
Stage 01
Appraisal
Site survey, title, planning history and a first massing test. We model the scheme that the constraints allow, not the one the area schedule wants, and walk away at this stage more often than any other.
Stage 02
Planning
Pre-application discussion, consultant team assembled, community and officer engagement. Daylight, transport and heritage work is done before the design is fixed rather than used to defend it afterwards.
Stage 03
Funding
Development appraisal tested against a fixed cost plan and a funding structure agreed with the partner who will hold the asset. Tenure and specification are set here, with the operator in the room.
Stage 04
Delivery
Contractor procured on a design that is complete enough to price properly. Programme, cost and quality reported monthly to every party, including neighbours where the works affect them.
Stage 05
Handover
Commissioning, soft landings and a mobilisation window long enough for the operator to open properly. We stay involved through the first year of occupation and record what we would change.
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