Urban Reset is a specialist asset and development manager working across real estate sectors in the UK. Founded in 2023 and based in central London, it is a lean business run by three directors: Huw Williams, Rob Millar and Nick Stewart. Huw describes himself as deal-led rather than a modeller by trade, so the priority is time spent on origination, structuring deals and client relationships, not on building spreadsheets. Urban Reset has been running on Pantera for a year.
The challenge
Straightforward development schemes could be put together by hand in an Excel appraisal. That was never the most efficient way to work, but with three directors the team could manage it. The harder deals were the ones Urban Reset actually looks at, where an income-producing asset has to be run down and blended into a development, or a part development, and those were time-consuming and complex to build.
Modelling them meant either running two separate models or taking on work that sat outside the team’s day-to-day focus, and with only three of them there was no analyst to hand it to. Reporting added another manual layer on top, packaging cash flows and appraisals into something a client or a funder could read.
Why Pantera
Nick had seen Pantera before the development side was built, and was struck even then by how usable and well presented it was. So when Urban Reset formed and Pantera had built out the development function, it gave the team one governed system, flexible enough to run any variation of an investment and a development together in a single platform.
Setting their own return parameters and shaping the model to whatever the deal required was quick and easy to pick up. Off the same inputs, the platform produces the fact sheets and summary sheets they send to clients and funding partners.
I love the fact that you can blend quite easily, an investment going into a development or even part development, which is what happens in real life. It just puts it in one place, it’s very simple.
The results
A decision in minutes, not a weekend
Holding the deal in a single model means the team sees a real time return profile that moves as the inputs change, so they can judge where they stand and act on it rather than rebuilding a spreadsheet first. For a business this lean, that speed is the difference between making a call in minutes and losing the weekend to it.
Running basic development appraisals is pretty straightforward on an Excel sheet, but merging them into an investment model is where I’d lose an entire weekend. So Pantera helps hugely on that. It is so good to finally have a system that merges everything and gives you a real time return profile.
Capacity without hiring an analyst
Pantera gives three directors the speed of execution they would otherwise need extra headcount to reach, so more time goes into sourcing and structuring deals and less into rebuilding models.
We’re quite a lean business, we don’t have analysts, it’s just the three of us. It doesn’t take away an analyst function, but it helps us with speed of execution and in reporting.
A tool for growth
The platform lets the team get a real handle on every opportunity and run different scenarios, from a cautious base case through to the upside, so they underwrite conservatively and know exactly where they stand before they commit. Fast, dependable underwriting is how a lean team wins the right deals and turns down the wrong ones.
I see Pantera as a really valuable tool for growing our business, helping us to focus our time on the right deals.
Numbers they can rely on
Huw points to accuracy as much as speed, and to the people behind the platform. For a small firm making funding decisions, being able to trust what sits behind the numbers is what matters most.
It’s accuracy as well. We can rely on Pantera. You guys are so hands-on, we can always pick up the phone and you’ll be available to help. It makes the difference when you’ve got deadlines to hit.
Reporting as a by-product
Reporting to clients and funding partners becomes a by-product of the underwriting rather than a separate job. The team can share whatever suits each audience, from a live link into the model through to an Excel export, without rebuilding anything.
It succinctly puts together your fact sheets and the summary sheets at the end, which helps us reporting to clients and funding partners.
A shared model with clients
More of Urban Reset’s own clients are now Pantera users themselves. That means Urban Reset can share a link to the model and the client already knows their way around it, which takes friction out of every conversation.
It just makes it much easier for us to say, here’s the link to the model, and they know their way around it as well. That’s really helpful.
Built around their feedback
When the team asks for something, it tends to arrive. The platform is being shaped around how they actually work.
If I hover the mouse over here, it’s a shame I can’t see the breakdown of pounds per square foot on that page. The next thing, I log on and you’ve done it.
What’s next
Getting deeper into the AI
Urban Reset wants to get further into Pantera’s AI capabilities, and the pull is the value the team can already see in them. Having AI analysis sitting alongside the modelling, and bringing in their own comps, means the intelligence is built for their deals and owned by the firm, rather than relying on a generic AI tool they would have to train themselves.
The way you are evolving as a business is very exciting to see. I don’t believe we are even scratching the surface of what you guys can do.
In Huw’s words
It is so good to finally have a system that merges everything and gives you a real time return profile. I love that you can blend an investment going into a development, which is what happens in real life.
I see Pantera as a really valuable tool for our growth, helping us to focus our time on the right deals. We have real confidence in the platform and the team behind it.
