Member Article

Disused Huddersfield church restored as student homes

A former Baptist Church in Huddersfield has been converted into student accommodation by a consortium of local businessmen.

The project to renovate the listed building was the first by the newly-formed property development company, Premier Student Lettings, which was established with the support of Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking.

The building on Cross Lane, Newsome, had stood vacant for two years before it was purchased in a joint venture by the company’s directors John Joyce, Kieran Bradbury and Richard Shaw.

Spread over four floors the accommodation comprises 44 student rooms arranged into 5-bedroom units, each with its own kitchen. Rooms will be available to rent individually or as a unit. There are also common rooms on each floor and an additional larger common room in the basement, as well as car parking and bicycle storage space.

John Joyce said: “While our team had previous experience in property development individually, this was by far the largest challenge we’d taken on, which is why we joined together to form Premier Student Lettings.

“We decided to keep the exterior unchanged as it’s a very attractive building, but its size led us to create bigger individual rooms and common spaces than most other student accommodation we’d seen in the town, giving the finished property a great spacious feeling.”

The team approached Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking in order to secure the funding to purchase and convert the old church through the Government-backed Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). Using FLS, Premier Student Lettings and customers across all SME sectors benefit from a one per cent discount on interest payments on all loans.

Wendy Hallas, relationship manager for Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking, said: “Premier Student Lettings’ development of this lovely old building demonstrates the thought and attention to detail that has gone into this project, creating a welcoming and comfortable property.

“When the team approached me with their business plan I could see that they’d spotted a great opportunity to offer a much-needed service in a prime location, only a short walk away from the university.

“We are keen to work with property businesses and have a wide range of support and guidance that we can offer, and through FLS we have lent £3.3 billion since September 2012 and we have pledged to lend £5 billion to SMEs through the scheme this year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .