Apartments push Manchester construction to 10-year high

Construction in Manchester and Salford is at its highest point in a decade, led by an increase in residential projects, up from 4,500 apartments on site in May to 7,000 at the start of this month.

Summary

Residential

There are now nearly 2,500 apartments under construction in the Manchester city alone, and nearly 3,000 apartments under construction in central Salford.

There’s also a healthy pipeline; with nearly 2,500 apartments waiting to start construction and over 40,000 in the pipeline overall across inner Manchester.

Hotels

There are 632 hotel rooms under construction across central Manchester, with 296 of those in the city centre and 220 of those in Trafford (the Hilton Garden Inn at the Emirates Stadium).

Overall pipeline is dominated by the city zone, which totals 2,609 bedrooms out of 3,170.

Offices

There is just over 1m sq ft of office space under construction across central Manchester, the majority (838,000 sq ft) of which is under construction in the city centre.

Just over 110,000 sq ft of space is ready to start construction in the city, whilst Bupa is doing groundworks on the site of its 145,000 sq ft new headquarters at Salford Quays.

Overall, central Manchester’s pipeline adds up to 7.6m sq ft of office space, 5.2m of which is in the city zone and a further 1.3m sq ft over the border in Salford.

Tall buildings

Renaker have officially started construction on Manchester’s new tallest building. Owen Street Tower 1 will rise 200.5m out of the ground on a large site off Great Jackson Street, about half a kilometre south of Beetham Tower, which will be tipped by over 30m by the new skyscraper.

Architect Ian Simpson dominates the Manchester skyline present and future, with Manchester’s four future tallest buildings designed in his office; and eight in Manchester’s top ten future talls overall.

Click here to download the August Manchester Development Update

• Ed Howe is studying for a master’s degree in city planning at Newcastle University and is originally from Salford. He also produces the Manchester Development Map, which indicates the locations of proposed buildings, as well as those projects that have been granted planning permission or are under construction.