CBRE: Manchester property investments tops £8bn in last decade

Manchester is the city outside of London which has attracted the highest level of commercial property investment over the past 10 years, according to CBRE.

As part of a new report published today, ‘Core Cities, Core Strengths’, CBRE showed that Manchester secured £8.2bn of commercial property investment, out of £44bn for regional cities nationally, putting it ahead of Birmingham at £6.5bn and Glasgow at £5.3bn. Liverpool recorded an investment of £2.1bn.

Manchester also performed better than Birmingham on a per capita basis, though both were beaten by Glasgow and Leeds and four smaller cities Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Bristol in this per capita ranking.

The report identified the key factors behind a city’s success as civic leadership, talent in growing sectors, quality of life and placemaking, and infrastructure, and provided a detailed review of the main city property markets outside London. It also includes softer indicators such as the number of five star hotels or Michelin star restaurants.

In total, the regions beyond London and the South East account for almost 60% of all UK commercial real estate transactions. The findings show that investors have diversified their property holdings as part of the recent economic recovery with emerging investment sectors such as healthcare and student housing increasing their share of the market. Prior to the financial crisis, these assets accounted for 3% of investment; this has trebled to around 10% of total investment volumes today.

A decade of investment: total investment volumes in commercial real estate, selected cities (£m) 2006-2015 Q3, ranked by total investment

  Office Industrial Retail Other Total investment
Manchester 3,939 357 2,579 1,360 8,235
Birmingham 3,383 541 1,621 1,018 6,563
Glasgow 2,163 371 2,131 612 5,277
Edinburgh 2,365 91 1,391 1,041 4,888
Leeds 1,593 322 1,242 588 3,745
Bristol 1,899 501 906 261 3,567
Aberdeen 1,309 603 359 406 2,677
Sheffield 408 182 1,798 285 2,673
Liverpool 563 333 994 278 2,168
Cardiff 734 201 724 235 1,894
Nottingham 281 194 608 364 1,447
Southampton 253 202 644 202 1,301
TOTAL 18,890 3,898 14,997 6,650 44,435

 

Overseas investment into the regions has also reached its highest level since 2007, with the first nine months of 2015 seeing twice as much investment as in the whole of 2013.

Colin Thomasson, executive director at CBRE Manchester, said: “Over the last 10 years, Manchester has established itself as a major European city of commerce attracting investment from all over the world. The city boasts unrivalled transport infrastructure, world renowned universities and cultural and sporting facilities which are the envy of the rest of the UK.

“Manchester is set for an exciting time in the years ahead which can only be further strengthened by the recent announcements in respect of the Northern Powerhouse and devolution.”

To download the report, please visit www.cbre.co.uk/corecities

Large transactions from the last decade include the sale of the Manchester Arena by Development Securities, now U+I, and Patron Capital, to Mansford Real Estate for £82.1m in 2013, 3 Hardman Square to M&G Real Estate by Credit Suisse for £91.7m in 2015, and the sale of Two St Peter’s Square sold by Fred Done for £100m to Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.

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