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Development, run by the people who appraised the site.
Akcel Ltd was set up to develop constrained urban sites properly: fewer schemes, more scrutiny, and the same team from first appraisal through to the first year of occupation.
The company
What we do
We acquire, design, fund and deliver residential-led schemes across five living sectors, working with landowners, local authorities, institutional funders and operators.
Our sites are usually complicated. A retained frontage, a rail or industrial boundary, contaminated ground, a listed structure, an awkward level change, a neighbour with a legitimate daylight objection. These are the reasons the land was still available, and they are solvable if they are dealt with at appraisal rather than discovered at technical design.
We keep the team small on purpose. The person who wrote the appraisal is the person in the planning meeting and on site, which means fewer assumptions get handed over and lost.
We would rather lose a site at appraisal than a year at technical design.
Akcel — development principleFewer schemes
A deliberately limited pipeline so that each site gets senior attention from appraisal to handover.
Honest appraisals
Cost plans and programmes built on what the constraints allow, tested before we commit.
Long-term view
Buildings specified for the party who will own and operate them for decades.
Local engagement
Officers, residents and neighbours consulted while the design can still change.
Who we work with
Four kinds of partner
Most of our schemes involve at least two of the following, and the structure is agreed before design is fixed.
Land and promotion
Option and promotion agreements, conditional contracts and joint ventures where the owner wants to stay in.
Local authorities
Estate renewal, surplus land and mixed-tenure delivery, including affordable housing and community uses.
Institutional investors
Forward funding and forward commitments, with specification and reporting agreed at the outset.
Operators
Student and rental operators brought in early so the building suits how it will actually be run.