Manchester is known as the UK’s most impressive area for property investment, leaving London far behind. The capital city was once the runaway favourite of landlords from around the world, but falling house prices in London have seen its property market cool.
In turn, others have risen to fill the gap – Manchester foremost among them – and the latest data from Savills shows that there is even more reason to be cheerful for anybody interested in Manchester property investment.
The company’s latest residential market forecast shows that the North West is going to be the runaway leader for capital appreciation over the next five years. Growth of 24.1% is expected by 2025 in the region, compared to just 15.5% nationally and a tiny 4% in London.
Within the North West, Manchester is the major driver of growth and is anticipated to see the lion’s share of house price rises – in particular the city centre market which the City Council believes will see population growth of 5,000 people a year until at least 2025. Given that there is already a lack of available homes in the city centre, all the signs are that demand will continue to shoot up.
This is especially true for the luxury homes market, meaning that if anyone looking to invest in the city should look at these up and coming areas in Manchester…
Piccadilly & Mayfield
Arguably the most exciting development space in Manchester, the area around Piccadilly Station and Mayfield is massively expanding the city centre and creating a whole new premium district. Soon enough you will be able to find everything from a new business district, to world class office and commercial and office spaces, to world-class research facilities here – and that will make it extremely desirable to young professionals and families who want to be at the heart of Manchester’s next big thing.
The Mayfield area is fast becoming one of Manchester’s most impressive hubs. As well as being just around the corner from Piccadilly Station, this £1.4bn site will include:
- 1.7m sqft of office space
- 120,000 sqft of landscaping, including a brand new 6.5-acre park
- The creation of more than 10,000 new jobs
Mayfield itself has everything it needs to succeed – and, what’s more, the area will receive another huge boost when ID Manchester is completed.
Minutes away from Mayfield, this £1.5bn University of Manchester Innovation District will create 4m sqft of world-class mixed-use space that will focus on attracting science, research, development, cultural, and tech companies – exactly the sort of mix that will create the highly skilled jobs the Manchester economy is built on.
Heading the other direction from Piccadilly Station, the Central Retail Park site is attracting similar levels of attention from investors thanks to a comparably extensive programme of investment. Bordering the popular Ancoats and New Islington areas, Central Retail Park was a standard commercial trading park until recently.
Now, with those commercial units demolished, the stage is set for it to become the type of business centre that will help take Manchester’s economy to the next level. Through the construction of 10 separate buildings, it is anticipated that the site will provide the large-scale, purpose-built commercial space that will lead to the creation of a further 10,000 city centre jobs.
It goes without saying that there are not enough homes to in the Piccadilly and Mayfield area to deal with the upcoming demand – specifically, the type of luxury apartments that are so popular with the young professionals who will come to fill the new jobs. This is the ideal time to invest and make the most of future growth.
Find out more about investing in the Piccadilly and Mayfield area >>
Great Ducie Street
Another area of Manchester city centre which is an up and coming property hotspot is Great Ducie Street. It enjoys natural benefits – proximity to Victoria Station, the city centre, Spinningfields, the riverside and more – and is the site of transformational regeneration works.
Despite this, Great Ducie Street is not yet well known to investors and, consequently, property prices in the area are relatively low – something that we predict will not be the case for much longer thanks to a 20-year plan to upgrade the area.
The Great Ducie Street Regeneration Framework is under way and will:
- Create 2.8m sqft of prime commercial space
- Expand the city centre outwards, boosting the economy even further
- Be one of Manchester’s most in-demand new property markets
With that in mind, properties in the Great Ducie Street area is a fantastic long-term prospect for anyone looking at investment property in Manchester. The city centre is expanding rapidly to deal with population growth, and demand for properties in this area is already shooting up – which is pushing rents and property values ever higher.
Find out more about investing in the Great Ducie Street area >>
