City Living Prospects 'Still Strong'

Of all the claims made about the state of the property investment market, one of the most common is that the city living trend in regional cities is grinding to a halt. While more and more apartments have been built in cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds, these have now reached the point of oversupply, it has frequently been claimed, with falling prices and lack of demand cited as evidence. Not so, developer Urban Splash believes. Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com, the firm's Yorkshire region managing director Simon Gawthorpe insisted that not only would the property scene survive the credit crunch, but that its long-term prospects remained strong. He asked: "Do people want to live in city centres? I think absolutely they do but it's about having the right amenities and facilities to support that." "The reality is that it's going to be a hard six to nine months but the fundamentals of residential property are still there and still strong. We're still not providing the amount of residences across the whole board that we should do," he added. As a result, he suggested, there was plenty of mileage in the market. The point Mr Gawthorpe made about having the "amenities and facilities" to support property in the city centres may, however, be a major deciding factor in the future progress of this market. He noted with disappointment that the Park in the Heart scheme, which would transform the area around the city hall in Bradford, had missed out on National Lottery funding. "You get the public realm right and it brings people into the city centre," he stated. Such issues may apply in an even wider sense to those locations adjacent to city centres where more apartment building is going on. A notable example of this is east Manchester, where districts such as Ancoats, New Islington and Sport City are seeing extensive development for people who can consequently live close to their city centre workplaces. In these areas improvements in the local environment and facilities will also be significant but in a different manner. While city centres making a transition from being principally districts full of shops and offices to partially residential areas need to introduce elements such as more grocery stores, local authority services and medical practices, expansion of city living into the inner city brings the challenge of combining the creation of attractive locations in which to situate such property with the broader aim of regenerating run-down districts. New East Manchester, the body behind the development of that part of the city, has just announced the outcome of such a consultation, with the result that a number of enhancements will be factored into the future plan. Many of these are as much for the benefit of existing residents as new ones, under a holistic strategy which aims to increase the population by nearly 40 per cent in the next decade and achieve better educational and employment outcomes at the same time. Thus 50,000 new trees and crime reduction will go hand in hand among the aims for the body. In short, the idea will be that the poor will become much less poor and the wealthy will want to live there. Making urban locations into attractive environments for the future residents of apartments built there is one factor which may help both the value of such property and the demand for it, the latter being a key factor for any buy-to-let landlords investing in it. But the ultimate proof is in the sales prices. The Liverpool Daily Post reported a few Months ago that a flat bought for over £200,000 in 2004 had been sold for just £101,000. Yet now, it reports, the first million pound properties in the city centre had been bought, two penthouses each trading for £1.5 million. With successes such as that, it appears demand for city living property is alive and well. In today's world Property investment is an excellent investment option especially investment in UK