Property Prices
Looking back at new build buy to let properties
The northern cities - Leeds, Liverpool Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield - have doubled the total number of homeowners in the last decade to 47,000 - but the output of new homes needs to change to underpin long-term revival.
That's the warning given near the begining of 2006. The output of homes in these centres could reach 7,000 by 2007. By 2018 their total population could be around 100,000 - but developers need to build for groups other than students and young professionals.
A city living model based overwhelmingly on young adults is not always suitable but the development of city centre living has been more successful than anybody could have imagined a decade ago.
Currently, the concept is out of favour because of potential over-supply, with too many one and two bedroomed flats, and investors competing with each other for tenants. But in the long-term the general lack of supply will sort this problem out. At the moment, when big
schemes of several hundred homes go on sale, it can take months for the market to soak it up but soak it up they do. City centre prices under review are either stagnant, or in places like Nottingham, even falling. Between 60% and 80% of many schemes are pre-sold to investors, and sold on before completion to other investors or even residents who actually intend to live there. In 2006 property prices continued to rise but 2007 may see prices remain unchanged from 2006 levels. A quick killing for speculators is looking unlikely from now on. There is a huge demand - so problems will be mainly short-term. But city living needs to evolve over the next decade to create homes for a much wider market than merely 20-35-year olds.
The provision of services and facilities currently isn't there. Going to Marks & Spencer food halls is fine, but not if you need a taxi to get home afterwards.
We need a balanced community in the inner cities. Developers and planners are beginning to look at widening the demographic group of inner city residents, and to appreciate what is needed to persuade people to raise families in the inner cities. Tesco Metro stores are only the start of a solution.
By 2015, Manchester could have the most inner city residents - about 23,500 compared with 12,000 today. Leeds will have 20,000, Liverpool 18,000. More than 16,000 new homes were completed in the five centres in the decade to 2005. Currently in the planning pipeline are another 25,000, so the rebirth of city living is still barely at the
halfway stage.
However, investors mignt be less affected by a city centre slowdown than expected because they have been heading for cheaper suburbs for many months.
Manchester and Leeds are huge for our investor clients, while Newcastle and Liverpool are roughly average. Sheffield has very small demand from buyers outside the area. However, in Manchester, where the investor market is huge, investors are targeting suburbs like Moston where small terraced houses built around 1900 change hands from £50,000 upwards. In Liverpool, lowest prices start around £50,000. Shrewd buyers see value in older, secondhand property which is harder to see in brand new.
Focus of urban revival, and stronger property prices, could switch to secondary centres like Hull, Barnsley, Rotherham and Wakefield.
The perfect model for successful urban renovation in the North already exists - in York! A city of 180,000 people, which somehow escaped both 19th century industrialisation and the 20th century obsession with urban motorways and comprehensive redevelopment, York's city centre terrace houses are occupied more by families than students. There are lessons to be learned from York in terms of development layout and house types which could be successfully translated to other areas.
Buy To Let Mortgages 1
Buy To Let Mortgages 3
Buy To Let Mortgages 4
Buy To Let Mortgages 5
Buy To Let Mortgages 6
Buy To Let Mortgages 7
Buy To Let Mortgages 8
Buy To Let Mortgages 9
Buy To Let Mortgages 10
Buy To Let Mortgages 11
Buy To Let Mortgages 12
Buy To Let Mortgages 13
Buy To Let Mortgages 14
Buy To Let Mortgages 15
Buy To Let Mortgages 16
Buy To Let Mortgages 17
Buy To Let Mortgages 18
Buy To Let Mortgages 19
Buy To Let Mortgages 20
Buy To Let Mortgages 21
Buy To Let Mortgages 22
Buy To Let Mortgages 23
Buy To Let Mortgages 24
Buy To Let Mortgages 25
Buy To Let Mortgages 26
Buy To Let Mortgages 27
Buy To Let Mortgages 28
Buy To Let Mortgages 29
Buy To Let Mortgages 30
Buy To Let Mortgages 31
Buy To Let Mortgages 32
Buy To Let Mortgages 33
Buy To Let Mortgages 34
Buy To Let Mortgages 35
Buy To Let Mortgages 36
Buy To Let Mortgages 37
Buy To Let Mortgages 38
Buy To Let Mortgages 39
Buy To Let Mortgages 40
Buy To Let Mortgages 41
Buy To Let Mortgages 42
Buy To Let Mortgages 43
Buy To Let Mortgages 44
Buy To Let Mortgages 45
Buy To Let Mortgages 46
Buy To Let Mortgages 47
Buy To Let Mortgages 48
Buy To Let Mortgages 49
Buy To Let Mortgages 50
Buy To Let Mortgages 51
Buy To Let Mortgages 52
Buy To Let Mortgages 53
