Apartment prices soar
A BOOM in city centre living has sent flat prices spiralling in central Manchester.
The average amount people are paying for flats in the M4 postcode – covering the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and New Islington – has hit £200,000 this year. That is an increase of 67 per cent in less than a decade.
The price-hike dwarfs those seen in traditionally popular suburban property hotspots like Didsbury and Chorlton.
The data come from analysis of Land Registry records of more than 20,000 flat sales in Manchester since 2010. It shows that the city-centre postcodes – M4, M1 and M3 – are the only ones where the average apartment now sells for more than £200,000.
In 2010 – at the start of the decade – there were 340 flat sales in M4 with an average paid price of £119,875.
In 2018 there were 489 sales with the average price rocketing to £189,950. So far in 2019, the average price has risen again – to £200,000.
The M1 postcode saw 217 sales in 2010 at an average price of £150,000. In 2018 there were 444 sales, average price £200,000.
In M3, meanwhile, average flat prices have gone up from £190,000 in 2010 to £249,999 so far in 2019.
While other parts of Manchester have seen flat price rises, the increase has been less dramatic.
In Didsbury, for example, flats are current selling for 30 per cent more than they did in 2010.
It isn’t just Manchester that has seen a rise in city-centre living.
Leeds has seen average flat prices in LS1 rise from £140,000 at the start of the decade to £193,750 now.