Real estate forum UKREiiF to remain in Leeds after search for new host city

Published 27th Nov 2023, 06:00 BST

Earlier this year, organisers announced they were looking for a new city to potentially host the event from 2025.

However, following an exploration of potential host cities, they announced that UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum) will remain in Leeds for the foreseeable future.

UKREiiF, which launched in 2022, is a three-day event which brings together the public sector from towns and cities across the UK alongside government, investors, funders, developers, housebuilders and more.

Leeds has won the bid to remain the host of the annual real estate forum UKREiiF after fighting off competition from Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Picture: InaHarrisPhotography

Hosted by the Royal Armouries in 2022 and 2023, UKREiiF is a significant driver of footfall and income to the city. In 2023 UKREiiF attracted nearly 10,000 delegates to Leeds, generating £12.1m visitor spend for the local economy.

UKREiiF 2024 aims to attract 12,000 delegates to the Leeds Dock area and generating an additional visitor spend of £20m.

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, said: “A big thank you to the UKREiiF team, the council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority 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.”

Mayor of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Tracy Brabin added: “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.”