Site sale could net university £10m

The 20-acre Bodington Hall site in Adel, Leeds, has planning permission in principle for the development of 157 homes.

The complex, built in the 1960s, housed more than 1,150 students, but admissions have been phased out and the building will be completely vacated in December.

Property firm DTZ, which the university has appointed to find a purchaser for the site, said it will then be available for immediate redevelopment.

Philip Roebuck, director of its residential team in Leeds, said: “A development opportunity of this scale in a high-value area of north Leeds is rare and therefore an extremely exciting prospect.

“It is probably the best residential development site to be offered to the market in Yorkshire in recent years.”

The university decided to sell the site in 2007 but the plans have been delayed by the downturn in the economy.

Built on part of the Weetwood Hall estate, the site was named after Sir Nathan Bodington – the university’s first vice chancellor between 1904 and 1911.