Manchester
In the North West and in particular the Manchester city centre, the supply of apartments is larger than last year. Two bed flats without car parking suffer most in terms of deterioration in value. Pricing has to be competitive in order to achieve sales and there is some evidence being created from receivership and repossession sales. This has hampered the ability to retain values at last year’s levels in more established blocks. A positive factor is that there is now a more mature owner-occupier market in the city and this is providing some alternative to demand and bodes well for the medium term. Encouragingly, the rental market is performing quite well and whilst there is no real rental growth to be seen, there is tenant demand in most locations.
