Real estate festival UKREiiF provided £12.1m boost for Yorkshire’s economy, says study

A spokesman for UKREiiF said: “The event, which brings together investors, developers, local authorities and the wider real estate and infrastructure sectors looks to connect businesses to drive sustainable and inclusive regeneration.”

A report into the event’s impact from Arup, the global professional services firm, also revealed that UKREiiF brought new potential investors to the city.

The spokesman said: “ARUP calculated the figure by working closely with event organisers UKREiiF to use data sources on delegates, location of travel, nights in the city region and more, in addition to data from Visit Britain, Visit Leeds and the STEAM Tourism Economic Impact model.

“The direct economic impact looks at organiser spending, visitor spending and fringe event organisation spending, with visitor spending looking at areas such as accommodation, food and drink, shopping, local travel, evening events and entertainment.

"The Deloitte and Oxford Economics Multiplier Model was then used to capture the proportion of money then injected back into the local economy.”

The report concluded that 75 per cent of event delegates recorded at least one overnight stay in the region, with 55 per cent spending at least two nights in the city.

As a result, 11,663 “bed nights” were taken in local hotels and there was £4.5m recorded in visitor spending, according to the report.

Keith Griffiths, chief executive officer at UKREiiF, said: “UKREiiF created a real buzz across the city region with hotel occupancy at 100 per cent and bars and restaurants seeing a huge increase on usual midweek trade.

"This year the local businesses really got behind the event, which saw bars and restaurants open later and really help to amplify the total from £5.5m in the first year to more than £12m in the second.

“We also worked closely with the likes of Leeds City Council to showcase the city region in advance, which has helped boost ‘visit stays’ with some staying for more than five days in the region, to add tourist days either side, and we’re looking forward to working even more with the council and the Business Improvement District to build on this for 2024.

"It’s worth saying that this economic impact just looks at the local level of visitors and spending. UKREiiF showcases more than £100bn of investment opportunities across the UK and the deals and projects which are secured and signed from UKREiiF mean the event has become a real staple in the industry diary and one which is set to have an even bigger economic impact across the wider country.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Speakers at the 2023 event included the former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine. During the event, Sheffield Hallam University, in partnership with South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, highlighted the vital role of health investment as part of inclusive regional growth plans.

The UKREiiF session, led by South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Professor Sally Pearse, Sheffield Hallam’s Strategic Lead for Early Years and Director of EYCRC, and Jason Brannan, Deputy Director of the AWRC, underlined how health investments could drive regional growth, transform communities and improve health outcomes.