citu.co.uk Reviews 

When I first got to the Citu show house I met with Hannah. She was lovely to speak with and extremely knowledgable about Citu and what they offer.

I then met with Sharan, whose passion and enthusiasm for all things Citu was palpable. She took me through the details of construction including a demo of the wall system. She then answered every question I had, with an impressive amount of detail.

We then walked through the development and she even took the time to show me the apartments. Sharan is an absolute credit to Citu and they are extremely lucky to have her.

I recently took a group of Y12 students to the CITU site in Leeds, where Charlie gave us an extensive tour of the site; highlighting the key sustainable innovations used in building homes and designing the site to enhance the well-being of residents. The visit should be incorporated into every design based educational curriculum. Charlie was engaging and highly knowledgeable, the students went away inspired by the wide variety of careers offered by the group.

We're very happy with our CITU property and the wider community the developer has created in Kelham.

The build quality and finish is high. Noticeable benefits are the quality of the heat and sound insulation. This creates a warm and peaceful dwelling in the centre of the city.

Where we've encountered challenges, which is inevitable in any new build (this is our second), CITU has been quick to rectify them.

We had a tour from Charlie at Citu - it was extremely informative and my sixth form students gained a valuable insight into the sustainable development project.
The whole process was very easy, from getting in contact to arranging the tour, polite and professional.

Had a lovely time at the show home with the help of Charlie. It really helped learning about all the thought behind the design of the houses, and he proved to be an expert. Thank you for all the help, it really made our experience

Like many other purchasors, we have many defects with our home. Citu have been made aware of the problems, but either don't reply or take months to do nothing.

It's such a shame as the idea of the Climate Innovation District is a great one, but Citu themselves have somehow turned it into a disaster of leaky roofs, wobbly cladding, inadequate security, failing gates, thefts and planning contraventions.

Here's their reply of 2nd July:
"Sorry that you have felt the need to express your feedback with us here. We would welcome the opportunity to resolve your situation by contacting our Customer Service team at xxxx as we are unable to identify who you are. Sincerely, The Citu Team."

Paraphrasing - "we're not sorry about the problems, just sorry you're complaining about them."

It's disingeneous at best and probably quite dishonest to suggest you've not had the opportunity to resolve the many issues residents are experiencing as they've been raised with you many, many times both directly with your representative AB and via the residents committee.

A better reply would be to :

1, accept that there are many long-standing problems at CID,
2. concede that you have over the past few years done a very sub-par job at resolving them
3. Publicly commit to fixing them
4. Seek public confirmation that you have indeed done so
5. Demonstrated how you have put in place process to ensure a better quality of workmanship, more honest feedback and were able to demonstrate you were acting with integrity rather than just coming on here and snarking at people with legitimate, serious unnresovled problems.

As things stand, it's a shame that residents are resorting to legal action to address the many serious problems in design and how you built these houses.

In our experience, dealing with the customer facing side of Citu has been a very difficult journey characterised by poor workmanship, terrible communication, and a lack of quality control.

We foolishly opted for the premium finish for our house (£13,000 above the basic pack that was available including £3,000 for hardwood flooring in bedrooms instead of carpet). We moved into Solar Avenue in July 2020. In January 2024 we believe we have the following remaining defects and snags:

• Damage to cladding at the front of the house
• Unfinished remedial cladding works on the side of the house with the potential for more damage as the public decking goes under the bottom of the cladding on our house
• Damage to some Accoya frames around windows
• Rat access under cladding at the back
• Concrete splashes on window
• Front door that does not seal properly
• Small gap in floor between floor plate and floor on ground level after both were re-placed
• 4 windows that need replacing (one scratched on both sides; 3 where scratches were removed but the windows now have a warp due to the size or depths of the scratches)
• small sections of damage to the floor throughout the house where glue was removed following replacement and cosmetic fixes
• no actual boost switch on hot water cylinder (this was not on our 7 day or 12 months snagging list but should have been picked up when it was finally commissioned)
• poor quality tiling, grouting and sealant in top bathroom including poor finish of some remedial work such as large grout stains on some tiles
• Some architraves need replacing due to poor filling of gaps at the bottom
• Banister on all levels was partially sanded but not finished and sealed. We agreed with Citu we’d let them fix a wobble instead, it still wobbles
• Poorly finished steps including gaps, splitting and a nail through one step
• Poorly finished kick-board in the kitchen
• Cheaper finish of kitchen cupboards than what we paid for
• Cobbled together kitchen surface that should be one continuous piece (the hob also has a fault we cannot argue this is a defect that citu is responsible for)
• Juliet balcony does not always airlock
• Coffin door – rust on opening mechanism
• Issues with decking with planks moving apart (one cracked), lack of protective fleecing and inappropriate feet to hold up the structure of the decking
• Noisy flooring in parts where floor moves
• Beading on Juliet balcony raised and sharp in one part
• Front garden, hole where soil drains away and bark needs replacing following the section being dug up several years ago

Our last communication from Citu regarding defects was in November 2023 when we had to have yet another meeting about clarifying defects on our long list with yet another new person in charge. We have had no correspondence since.

Andy and Anne

We’d just like to thank the entire sales & customer team for an amazing first home buying experience! We absolutely love our apartment, there’s truly nothing else like it in Leeds. Danielle, along with the solicitors & mortgage broker she recommended have made the entire process effortless for us, we haven’t lifted a finger and we feel extremely looked after! & Andy did a perfect job of ensuring we had a smooth move in day! We couldn’t have asked for more & we’re so impressed with the quality of our apartment, it’s extremely cozy!

Jack & Charlie

Love the place and the houses. I had a couple of issues with poor responses to snags but they were escalated and ultimately fixed. The houses are great, very well insulated (although the electric heating is relatively expensive when you need it on the coldest and darkest winter days), well sound proofed, well designed, and just very nice to live in. Proximity to the city is great, Leeds dock is less than 5 mins away, but equally you can walk the other way get away from the hustle and bustle in no time at all.

We worked with CITU to host our Active Workplaces Event last week (April) 2023 - the event was managed brilliantly by Abby and the team - great venue / facilities and easy for people to travel to the building via active travel options - Thanks CITU - Active Leeds (Leeds City Council)

As mature buyers wanting to downsize, we recently had several visits to view the townhouses being built at Kelham Central - the sustainability credentials of the Citu houses really appealed to us in our attempt to tread a bit lighter on the planet. Sales Specialist Sarah Roberts couldn't have been more helpful in guiding us round a range of properties to get a feel for the style of building and how the community is developing. She invited us to visit the Leeds development along the river Aire as well as their offices and the factory - very interesting to be able to see how the houses are made from start to finish. All our questions and concerns were answered very honestly.

We've been very impressed by the ethos and aspirations of the company. In the end we have not gone ahead, as we wonder if the area is right for us.

Ruth & Pete

We had a great experience with Danielle, although, and sadly for us the sale of our house fell through. We were attracted to Citu in Leeds as it offers a new concept in living and better than that a community. We have looked around since and nothing holds a candle to Citu Leeds, way ahead of other developers that puts the customer life style experience first. Nick

We’ve spent six months looking at CITU houses, trying to decide whether to buy and what location/house would suit us best. Throughout this time we’ve been supported by Danielle Cooper, the Customer Experience Manager at CITU. She has been a huge help to us and incredibly patient given the time we’ve taken to make up our minds. Danielle has met us at properties countless times, including during her Christmas holiday. She’s professional, knowledgable about the development and whilst she is very much a CITU sales person she also feels like someone who is on your side in finding the right house in the right location at the right price. Today, we exchanged contracts on a house in the Climate Innovation District in Leeds. And Danielle did a great job helping us navigate with our two solicitors to overcome a few potential final barriers to our purchase. She’s a great solutions focused person and if you are considering a CITU house then she’ll provide you with a good service. I should add that we did speak to a few residents to ensure we understood the pros and cons of buying on the CID development. They didn’t put us off but they did help us feel more informed about our decision and negotiating on our purchase.

I have viewed a lot of properties as everyone does, no one has made me feel comfortable and listened to what I wanted like Daniele did.

Many thanks for your help and support . Have a good 2023

Unfortunately our experience with Citu wasn’t great… so I’ve decided to write a fairly lengthy and honest reflection.

Citu/ climate innovation project is a beautiful and incredibly designed and marketed development that easily catches they eye of pretty much anyone, sadly it seems as though the delivery and service is in a somewhat different league.

We registered our interest in the development in June 2021, having been told the development would be completed in Feb/Mar of 2022. When the time came, we were informed barely weeks before that this was pushed back to July/ August, we were then told later that this was pushed to September and come September we were told it was pushed back to January 23.

Without going into copious details, the customer service along the way was pretty poor, whether this is down to staffing issues, organisational problems, or just simple bad attitudes, I don’t really know, all I do know is that we received very little meaningful empathy throughout the process as well as no substantial apology.

We have now successfully withdrawn from the development (with full refund) having recently found out there will be even further delays (of which a finish date has still not been announced to my knowledge).

Other than the long completion delays, we also decided to withdraw from the purchase due to the hugely complained about aftercare/ build quality. We heard that the developers duck/ avoid contact regarding defects, to the point in which we saw one of the houses on the development fill one of their windows with a plea to Citu for a response on the issues with their property… as in it was like an A1 poster with big capital letters…

I have noticed that Citu are barely (to put it lightly) completing a building before starting another, the second block of Airlofts has already started to take shape (which can now be seen as you drive past) which seems strange to say they have hundreds of people waiting to move into the first. The excuses we received for the delays were mostly procurement or delivery due to covid, I personally think this is a lie or a fragment of the truth given our experience and the reputation Citu seem to be building for themselves but I’m not a builder so don’t actually know.

In summary, there are clearly plenty of people happy with what they got when they joined Citu, however from my experience, the communication is super bad, the completion dates are pretty much made up as they go and there are masses of 1* reviews for them backing most of what I’ve mentioned up.

This review was based solely on my opinion and experience of the company. The development looks ace… but I would genuinely recommend you steer clear (even if you get woo’d in by the good sales and marketing like we did). I personally think their ethical/ sustainable and community vision is utter rubbish, other than using some recycled materials, they don’t seem to be doing much different than any other development.

Danielle was so helpful in helping me find the ideal appartment for me! Nothing was too much trouble, and she really put my mind at ease about the whole process as a first time buyer. I’d really recommend Citu to anyone looking for a friendly community feel and a stylish home! I can’t wait to move into my new flat.

Although I didn't go through with the sale, Danielle has been great throughout

Went to see a new build house in the Citu Kelham Island development. We were shown round by Sarah. She spent about 2 hours with us, finding out what we were looking for and then taking us to a finished property to see the fittings spec before showing us the not quite finished property we were considering. Sarah finished off by recommending we look round the development as a whole.
Sarah was just brilliant. Apart from the lengthy time she spent with us, she was just so informative about everything. Citu are lucky to have her!
By the time we left, we felt we were in a really good position to make an informed decision. We actually decided against taking our interest any further but it was a very worthwhile experience as we look for a new property.

We were interested in the idea of eco-friendly housing but knew little about it so were pleased to find out about Citu properties in Sheffield. We were lucky to meet Sarah and be shown around the development at Kelham Central and some of the properties there. Sarah was extremely welcoming and helpful, providing a lot of information about the Citu ethos as well as the actual properties, and answering our numerous questions openly and willingly, helping us to think through the implications of what is a significant lifestyle change. She even arranged for us to visit the development in Leeds to get a sense of other properties not yet available in Sheffield. We found Sarah to be friendly and approachable, she kept us up to date without being pushy or giving us the 'hard sell'. The properties are lovely and the whole Citu concept of eco-friendly living with private dwellings but some shared outdoor space for the development of community activity is great. The properties themselves are modern, fresh and high quality. All in all, a really positive experience of this company.

Daniele and the rest of the team (including Andy and Megan) were very helpful and easy to deal with throughout our recent purchase.