Manchester buy-to-let still on the up, say experts

Of all the British cities to see major redevelopment in the past few years, Manchester property has possibly been the most transformed. While Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham have all built plenty of flats and sought to reinvent themselves, Manchester has arguably had a much higher profile.

Various factors may account for this. The size of the conurbation is, outside London, only matched for population by the West Midland metropolitan area. The 1990s Olympic bids and the successful hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 raised its international profile, while The IRA bomb in1996 drew a response based on a long-term vision. On top of this, the redevelopment of the Salford Quays area has also created a large new space for several BBC departments to move into, a factor which may drive future development. In short, property in Manchester has seldom been out of the news and many factors have acted as catalysts for economic development and an enhanced image.

Since the early 1990s, the city has gone from having a few hundred living in the centre to many thousands living in new apartments, either in converted old buildings or striking new ones, such as the Beetham Tower, now the tallest building in the city. Such development is happening in the inner suburbs too, such as Ancoats, Ardwick, central Salford and Old Trafford.

Some might expect such development to grind to a halt now the property market has slowed, with buy-to-let a less enticing prospect. But not so, say many who deal with the market on a day-to-day basis.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News last week, Irene Thomas, operations manager at Auction Finance, expressed this view, stating: "In the rental market we continue to see a steady increase in the number of buy-to-let investors."

Much the same has been said by Savills, with Tom Rogers, a residential investment consultant in the firm's Manchester office, commenting: "We are quite busy at the moment. Obviously, people get a little bit dubious about investing in the market due to the credit crunch, but developments are still being built and we are still doing deals."

He added: "The rentals are always very good in the Manchester city centre; from a buy-to-let basis people are achieving rents that are paying the mortgage so it's not too bad".

Based on these comments, it would appear that the situation in the city is much more optimistic than some might imagine. This may account for the fact that further developments are still set to go ahead. Last week, for example, the Architect's Journal reported that West Properties is to press on with plans for five new towers on the edge of the city centre, creating well in excess of 1,000 new homes.

Other factors may be helping Manchester too. Manchesterfacts.com states that there are 100,000 students, which means a large buy-to-let market for young people in range of the universities. This factor may also boost the buying of flats by the parents of students, with the Manchester Evening News recently identifying the Pulse 42 development in Old Trafford as one such location. As sales manager Rachel Magenheimer told the paper: "Parents are considering the apartments as investments for their children going to one of the nearby universities and couples like it because the location is great for commuting."

It may just be that Manchester, having developed so much in recent years and with the Metrolink expansion and BBC arrival to look forward to, has too much going for it to suffer the sort of decline that would harm investors.

In today's world Property investment is an excellent investment option especially investment in UK

Jim Barnaby is a real estate investment broker and successful property investment adviser delivering research and selected UK and overseas property investment solutions with experience in spanish properties, french property investment, German property, Cyprus holiday homes, Property in Cape Verde, German property investment, cape verde property buy to let property