- Southern’s expertise in UK property development, planning and urban regeneration spans over 20 years
- He is founder of residential developer Southern Grove and student accommodation specialist Future Generation
London, 23 May 2019 – Property expert Andrew Southern, who is helping to change the face of student accommodation in the UK, is bringing his expertise to modular smart home developer Project Etopia as Chief Real Estate Officer.
Andrew Southern, the founder and chairman of Soho-based residential developer Southern Grove and student accommodation specialist Future Generation, also joins Etopia’s board.
With over 20 years of real estate experience, Southern has helped to create major innovative residential-led, mixed use housing schemes and he is the mastermind behind the £35m Steel City student development in Sheffield, which officially opens this year.
Southern has also held senior executive roles at market leading firms including Hadley Property Group, Hadley Mace, which he co-founded in 2009, and Catesby Property Group. At Hadley Mace, Southern specialised in regeneration and led bids on projects including the Greenwich Square project.
Over the last six years, Southern has built Southern Grove into a renowned, specialist mixed-use developer focusing on high-quality residential near key transport nodes and the hospitality sector.
In 2017, he expanded his interests by founding Future Generation with the vision of delivering superior student housing and, during his career, has personally overseen the planning and building of over 1,000 properties with a Gross Development Value of more than £500m.
So far this year Project Etopia has:
- Appointed Lord Stanley Fink as its Chairman
- Begun marketing homes in its modular commuter village in Corby, Northamptonshire, where this month the superstructure of the first four houses were finished in just 34 days
- Secured agreement to build a demonstration home at BRE’s Watford Innovation Park later this year
- Opened a new factory in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, with a capacity to produce 2,000 panelised homes a year
- Expanded its top team to include Lord Fink’s son Alex as a board adviser
Project Etopia is the only modular homes specialist in Britain to create turn-key properties that combine passive design, affordability, renewable energy generation, intelligent heating and cooling systems, and smart home technology as standard.
Andrew Southern, Chief Real Estate Officer of Project Etopia, commented:
“I am attracted to the high quality ideals and ambitions of Project Etopia to create large scale developments that are not only functional and affordable but desirable and exciting.
“I honed my skills working on unique regeneration projects in the UK and it’s Etopia’s strident idealism that has drawn me to Joseph and the team. The UK’s housing crisis can only be solved with a new approach and I think Etopia is going to be leading the charge.”
Joseph Daniels, CEO of Project Etopia, commented:
“Andrew has a track record to be proud of in the property industry, with a determination to achieve the very best with each development he undertakes. He is constantly moving forward and striving to set even higher standards. It’s fantastic to have that dynamism and ambition in-house to help drive Etopia forward.”