Author Topic: Mancunians "priced out" of city centre living  (Read 897 times)

celeste

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Mancunians "priced out" of city centre living
« on: 09:50:42, 03/03/19 »
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-47417655

Ordinary people are being priced out of living in Manchester city centre by foreign investors buying properties, the BBC has been told.

In one new Manchester apartment block, nearly two-thirds of flats have been snapped up by international buyers.

Academics and developers say this trend is forcing up house prices and rents.

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese welcomed investment in the city but acknowledged there was not enough housing for low-income families.

Using Land Registry documents, BBC Inside Out North West identified the owners of all 77 apartments in the One Smithfield Square development in Manchester's fashionable Northern Quarter.




The investigation found:
◾48 are owned by foreign buyers based in countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
◾24 are owned by companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, which have no or relatively low rates of tax
◾20 are owned by British property companies or buy-to-let landlords
◾9 appear to be owned by the people who live in them

Many of these companies are registered in tax havens, with only a small minority of the flats owner-occupied.

The results were "a really good example" of what is happening across Manchester, said Johnathan Silver from the University of Sheffield, who also wrote a recent report on the issue for the Greater Manchester Housing Action campaign group.

"What should be homes for Mancunians [are being] turned into assets and security boxes for offshore wealth," said Dr Silver.

'Flipped on'

Manchester is currently experiencing a housing boom, with more than 14,400 residential units being built and the number due for construction over the next three years likely to exceed the previous 10 years combined, according to Deloitte.

Local developer Tim Heatley, from Capital & Centric, estimated that 90% of these new apartments will be sold to investors rather than directly to owner-occupiers.

"A lot of investors will sell that apartment two, three or four times before it ends up as a completed apartment," he said.

"It might have sold initially for £150,000 then before it's completed it could be 160, 170, 180k. So they get flipped on and on and that's how they make their profit and that pushes the prices up."
All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

lozflan

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Re: Mancunians "priced out" of city centre living
« Reply #1 on: 09:57:33, 03/03/19 »
Nearly all the smaller developments I see,are 3or4 bed detached. The councils are passing these plans. Anything else are flats.
Politicians and nappies must be changed often,and for the same reason

celeste

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Re: Mancunians "priced out" of city centre living
« Reply #2 on: 10:22:52, 03/03/19 »
If they keep reselling they don't need to even pay mortgage payments for long, probably they're not furnished so don't pay council tax - it's not a new thing, something like people who buy run-down houses,  do them up then sell at a profit, what's new is all the foreign investment, the councils couldn't give a fig because it can't be stopped.
All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

St Chads Lad

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Re: Mancunians "priced out" of city centre living
« Reply #3 on: 10:55:06, 03/03/19 »
I can't imagine why anyone would want to live in the centre of Manchester personally, but I've said before that it's the start of gentrification in town, it'll end up like Londonistan.