Urbis Property is a professional Business Partnership, owned and run by husband and wife Chris and Pippa, married for 31 years. We have been student landlords in Durham since 1993. Chris’s sister, Michelle, looks after maintenance, welfare and day to day practicalities through her own business, Orchard Properties. All three of us have children who are either currently at or recently finished university, so we thoroughly understand what is required of being an exceptional student landlord.
Our student houses have a well deserved reputation as probably the best in Durham, with immaculate attention to details such as clipped bay trees outside your front door and beautiful plantation shutters at the windows. You deal with us directly, not through an agent, and many say we look after our tenants better than any other Durham landlord.
Our nine student houses are all in the center of Durham City, are extremely spacious and very comfortable, and provide you with an exceptional and exclusive home from home. All our properties have beautiful and abundant outdoor space for BBQs, sunbathing and socialising that we tend and look after for you.
Every bedroom in every house has a proper double bed, with a top quality deep comfy mattresses. You’ll spend up to half of your time in this bed whilst renting your student house, so this is VERY important.
All of our student houses (except 1 Finney Terrace) have an Aga providing a cozy warm heart to the home. They also make a perfect drier for wet sports kit, are more energy efficient than conventional cookers, and constant warmth (regulated by a thermostat) reduces the need for costly central heating from the boiler. They all have secondary cookers and hobs for busy cooking times and as a backup.
As well as oozing character from their original 18th and 19th Century period features and locations, our houses and apartments have other unique features such as:
Beautiful and practical stripped floorboards and parquet floors, fast fiber broadband, attractive and contemporary sofa’s and arm chairs, flat screen smart TVs, large dining tables for communal eating and dinner parties, and abundant fridge and freezer storage space.
Safety is paramount with full mains wired smoke detection systems, fire doors to every habitable room providing a secure fire escape route, full gas and electrical safety certification, full Government HMO Standards certification and full Durham University codes of standards compliance.
We employ a full time maintenance team who service only our properties. They keep the houses in good shape and respond rapidly to any maintenance requests you may have.
Here are just a few of the many unsolicited messages we received from tenants leaving us this year (names and house details redacted for data protection compliance):
Handwritten Card: “Thank you so much for all you have done as our landlord this year. I have felt safe and cared for… Thank you for being so kind and caring – I feel so lucky to have had a landlord like you for my first renting experience. (My next landlords) have huge shoes to fill. Mum says you’re an absolute angel (Michelle). I agree. Our whole house have loved living together.. We have put on dinner parties, done group workouts in the garden, watched the whole season of Love Island.., baked cakes and just generally made memories I will cherish for ever. I am very sad our year was cut short but what an amazing time I still had. Thank you very much for being so understanding of Covid-19 and letting me pick up my stuff late. I hope that next tenants are lovely and enjoy (the house) as much as we did. Have a fantastic Summer and get a well-deserved rest!
Lots of love, (signature) xxx”
Additional Footnote on Card:
“I have told (my daughter) you are the best landlady (Michelle) she is ever likely to have! Thank you for all the love, care and kindness. It meant the world to me knowing (she) was safe and happy.
Lots of love, (mum’s signature) x”
Handwritten Card:
“Thank you for your help with sorting out the practicalities of moving out during these unusual times. (We all) really enjoyed living in this house! I hope you have a great summer (signature)”
Handwritten Card:
“Here is my key – I’m so sorry it’s late, clearly I’m just too attached!
Thank you both so much for everything you have done for us this year.. – it really has made my second year at Durham (until Corona sent us all home!) amazing and I am very grateful to have lived in such lovely house with so many memories – I will miss it a lot!
Once again, thank you (signature).”
Email: “Thank you so very much for the gesture of goodwill. On behalf of the house, we all really appreciate it so thank you so much. Additionally, thank you so much for being such a great landlord – you were such superstars and thanks so much for making our lives easy. I hope the same could be said for us”.
Email: “Many thanks from all of us for this, it’s much appreciated. We’d also like to say a massive thanks for your help throughout the year… you looked after us brilliantly!”
Email: “We’ve all had a wonderful time this year and have enjoyed having you as our landlords very much”.
Email: “I just wanted to say a massive thank you for listening and acting on our requests, it makes a big difference being able to talk straight to you rather than going through an estate agent. It really means a lot and thank you for a wonderful house, which really made our third year.”
Email: “You have been great to have as our landlords… thank you for all your help and understanding across the past year it has been such a relief for us to have had Michelle looking after us”.
We also offer an elite portfolio of high quality executive homes in North East England and executive apartments in London’s West End.
All of our properties are extremely spacious, entirely unique and very comfortable, combining modern utilities with character and period features. Our tenants have included some top Premier League footballers from various clubs and “Big Sam” Allardyce lived rented the Larches from us while managing Newcastle United.
We supply an unrivaled and easy solution for you to find and enjoy a place in one of these exclusive homes from home. Our highly professional and experienced team will then provide you with a full holistic service and look after all of your maintenance needs throughout your tenancy.
All of the properties listed on this site are owned by Chris and Pippa.
We are fully verified by www.sturents.com with a100% rating.