According to JLL’s ‘The New Housing Paradigm’ report, Manchester city centre might see a 6.5% rise in 2018 for its house prices and a 22.8% growth by 2022. Coupled with an increase in values, rents are due to rise by 3.5% this year and 17.6% over the next five years.
Other northern cities will also see a growth in prices, including Leeds with 3.5% and Liverpool with 4.5%, while both their rents will grow by 3.5%.
In Manchester, the average price of a two-bed flat grew by 8.7% to £250,000 while rents grew 3.2% on average in 2017. A one bedroom apartment in the Smithfield Buildings scheme on Tib Street grew from £140,000 to £176,000, while at Castlegate a two bedroom flat grew in price by 2.1%.
“Manchester is now firmly established as the most important regional economic hub in the UK. Its high graduate retention rate, second only to London in the UK, is seeing the number of people who live and work here growing,” said Stephen Hogg, lead director of regional residential at JLL.
For investors, the city has the most attractive offers, with the average build-to-rent yield going as high as 4.75% in the centre. “The city has witnessed continued increases in house prices and rental values over the last five years as a result of this high demand. It’s this that’s led to the emergence of built-to-rent developments in the city, which have proved the asset class can perform incredibly well outside London,” added Stephen.
The JLL report states that the housing market in the North West has managed to outperform the rest of the UK since the EU referendum vote. Neil Chegwidden, residential research director at JLL, hopes that factors like Brexit will make the housing markets in the north of England among the strongest over the coming years.
