City on the brink of a boom in rental flats

City on the brink of a boom in rental flats

Data from Deloitte Real Estate suggests that 10,000 private rented sector (PRS) flats are due to be built in Manchester.

An artist’s impression of the Select PRS scheme for the former-BBC site on Oxford Road in Manchester

Manchester could be on the brink of a building boom as plans for more than 10,000 central Manchester rental flats move closer to development.

Data from Deloitte Real Estate suggests that 10,000 private rented sector (PRS) flats are due to be built in Manchester.

The surge in development is prompted by investment by pension funds, insurance companies and private businesses who think PRS is the next big property investment opportunity. Up to £30bn is said to be ready to invest in PRS, according to the British Property Federation.

Investors and developers hope that city residents will prefer to rent from well-organised professional landlords, rather than buy their own flats, or rent from individual buy-to-let landlords.

Manchester is one of the main UK targets for investors, with 2,170 PRS flats already under construction and thousands more expected.

Local developers are leading the way in the north west. Deansgate-based Panacea are at work on a 400 flat PRS scheme at The Strand in Liverpool. Panacea already owns the site and is currently working up the planning application with a view to starting on site at the beginning of 2017.

Alderley Edge-based Select Property Group’s Affinity Living brand is preparing 1,800 new PRS apartments in Manchester.

These include 700 flats on the former BBC Oxford Road site, developed jointly with Bruntwood, another 703 units at the Embankment site, Manchester, and 472 flats on an as-yet unnamed city site.

Select is a north west based business that develops, sells and manages market-leading residential property investment brands with a commitment to the end user customer and focus on service excellence. The company currently has seven schemes in the UK offering serviced residential accommodation.

Some sources suggest the total number of new PRS apartments planned for central Manchester could be considerably above 10,000.

However, senior developers say some of these plans are over-ambitious and will never leave the drawing board.

Salford-based Muse Developments is behind one of the few PRS schemes already under-construction. The £16m development at New Bailey is being funded by Legal & General.

Muse director Matt Crompton said: “This is a new market, but still immature and uncertain. We don’t yet know how it will take off.

“We have already seen the deal with Legal & General, and we have had a lot of developer interest in building PRS apartments at Victoria station. Perhaps as many as 400 flats.”

“It will come down to who has the best sites, the best locations. Some of those being touted for PRS are not ideal. There is a genuine market for PRS, one that is growing, but some people may have got carried away.”

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