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UK: Around 300 professionals from across the living, hospitality and flex workspace sectors attended the 2025 Urban Living Festival in London this week.
Day one event kicked off with ‘Unlock the Neighbourhood’ tours which took in the redevelopment of London’s Denmark Street in to a cutting-edge entertainment district which retains its Tin Pan Alley musical heritage. Attendees visited Chateau Denmark, a 44-room hotel set over 15 townhouses, and Outernet, one of the UK’s best-attended visitor attractions, before touring flex workspace provider x+why’s new Bedford Square property, topped off with drinks and pizza.
Day two saw a full day’s content at Mary Ward House in Bloomsbury. A morning of plenary sessions was kicked off by ULN editor George Sell who set the scene backed by a slide bearing the slogan – ‘May you live in interesting times’. He spoke of the numerous challenges facing the real estate and hospitality sectors but urged the audience to stay positive, think differently and grasp the opportunities that come their way.
A keynote speech – ‘the future is now’ – from Andy Young of architects BIG. His talk showcased some amazing and creative projects across the globe, encouraging architects, developers and investors to think differently about commercial and resi projects. “People actually want to live in interesting places,” said Young.
A panel called Urban Living 2035 projected a decade ahead to see how the urban regeneration landscape might look. Stephanie Pollitt of BusinessLDN said that housing is the main priority. Andrew Carter from Centre for Cities highlighted the role of universities in driving urban economies, while Dr Ana McMillan of Broadway Malyan said the company’s project at Kirkstall Road, Leeds, has become the second scheme in the country to achieve Gateway 2 approval under the new building safety regime – giving hope to all those involved in schemes currently bogged down in red tape.
There followed a discussion called ‘Redressing the balance’, chaired by James Pargeter of GAA Living, which looked at how investors, developers and local authorities address the worsening supply and demand equation in the living sector verticals.
A fascinating presentation by Phill Coffey of Coffey Architects on building materials for the future highlighted the potential use of wool, hemp, seaweed and biochar as building blocks of urban development. This was followed by the awarding of the 2025 Urban Living Impact Awards.
Congratulations to the winners:
• Damien Sharkey of HUB — Disruptor of the Year
• Anil Khera of Node — Visionary of the Year
• POHA House: Hamburg — Best Sustainability Initiative Project
• JOI-Design Innenarchitekten: LIVELY Gronau — Best Adaptive Reuse Project
The afternoon sessions consisted of asset class-specific panels, presentations and round tables covering BTR, PBSA, coliving, later living, flex workspace, hospitality and short-term rentals. A new edition for 2025 was the well-received AI Lounge which hosted some fascinating discussions on how AI is impacting real estate and hospitality now and in to the future.
The sentiment at the event was overwhelmingly positive. While acknowledging that funding, delivering and managing operational real estate is tough right now, there were are a lot of dynamic, ambitious and clever people trying to do just that at ULF and relishing the challenge.
Thank you to our sponsors Airbnb, Bidwells, Clyde & Co, Dreamdesk, Keystone Law, STR, TLJ Access Control, and Urban Rest; and also to our supporting partners The ARL, ASAP, Bournemouth University, Coliving Ventures, The Class Foundation, FlexSA and Touchstay.
Click here to see the speaker presentations.
See you next year for a bigger and better event!
