Western Daily Press (Saturday)
City popular for residential property investment
CAMBRIDGE, Edinburgh and Bristol are the top three cities in the UK for residential property investment, according to a new report.
Bristol ranked highly due to its strong economy, skilled and educated workforce, house price growth, strong rental yields and low level of income inequality, the report by global commercial real estate firm Colliers International found.
The Top UK Residential Investment Cities report placed the city just behind Cambridge and Edinburgh, which took the two top spots.
The firm compared key cities from the UK against 20 indicators in the four the main areas of economics, property, education and liveability.
Jo Edwards, head of South West and Wales office of Colliers, said: “Bristol is a beautiful and vibrant city, with a cosmopolitan waterfront and an array of attractive green spaces. It is renowned for its creative scene, and a flourishing foodie culture. An ambitious regeneration project will bring a new £300 million University of Bristol campus to the heart of the city in 2025, as well as a new 17,000 capacity arena scheduled to open in the north of the city in 2024.
“We are seeing a range of residential opportunities and developments coming forward for a variety of accommodation, and complementary commercial space.”
Andrew White, head of residential at Colliers, said residential investors were often attracted to the big-name cities, but the firm’s analysis offered a “wider perspective”.
“With its significant regeneration programme and strong house price growth it’s only natural that Bristol has come high up on the list,” he said.
Oliver Kolodseike, deputy chief economist at Colliers, compiled the results.
He added: “Colliers conducted a deeper dive across different categories of interest that may be relevant to various groups of individuals from developers to occupiers to investors. Bristol has strengths across all four of these categories, placing it in our top three cities.”