City growth ‘stifled by lack of quality homes’
THE potential growth of Manchester is being stifled by a failure to offer quality homes for Millennial and Gen Z workers, a new study has concluded.
Analysis by real estate advisors Colliers International found that 4,000 units will be delivered across 12 developments in the Central Business District or inner ring road of Manchester between now and 2022.
The study, entitled ‘Cityscape,’ shows that 11,000 jobs will be created by new and existing employers in the public and private sectors in the same area over the next four years.
Colliers believes the majority of these jobs in technology, media and telecoms, as well as healthcare, government, legal, banking and insurance sectors, will be taken up Millennials, born 1981-1996, and Generation Z, born 1996-2010.
While the supply of new homes falls well short of what is needed, Colliers claims quality and location is a major problem. Michael Hawkins, director at the Manchester office of Colliers, said the findings of the study showed the importance quality not just quantity.
“We established that the number of units being delivered within the CBD between 2018 and 2022 was just over 4,000 but more importantly, that there were almost 11,000 jobs being generated in that area over the same timeline,” he said.
“Our analysis of the corporate profile and nature of the businesses creating these jobs shows that a high proportion of these new employees will be from the Millennial and Generation Z employment base.
“There are a number of residential schemes being brought forward but because of their micro location, environment, orientation, internal configuration and build quality and interior finish, they will simply not prove to attract lettings and will always struggle to perform.
“Manchester is therefore under-supplied in respect of good quality and welllocated residential schemes.”
Colliers interrogated completion dates of residential schemes committed on a year-by-year basis, those schemes being completed within the CBD and the outer CBD, and rental and capital values.