Landsec: no resi starts until 2027 at the earliest

The first phase of 897 homes at Mayfield in Manchester and the 2,700 due to come forward as part of the next wave of development at MediaCity will not be on site for at least another 12 months, the developer has confirmed.

Landsec has a pipeline of 9,000 homes to deliver over the next decade, including around 3,500 in Greater Manchester, but will not be pulling the trigger next year due to “insufficient” forecasted returns.

Work on detailed design and Building Safety Act approvals will continue throughout 2026.

The majority of Landsec’s resi pipeline is located in London, where Mayor Sadiq Khan has lowered affordable housing requirements to boost the flagging residential development market.

However, with lower end values in the North and fewer policy levers to pull, the Mayfield and MediaCity resi schemes will be harder to get going than those in the capital.

In a trading update published today, Landsec said: “Each of these [schemes] benefit from strong transport connections, scale, and a demonstrable need for more housing.

“We could see first starts on site in 2027, taking into account detailed design works, Building Safety Act approvals, and site preparation.

“However, returns currently are not at sufficient levels which is an issue across the wider market, as highlighted by the fact that new housing starts in London fell to 3,248 over the first nine months of 2025, which is down c. 75% over the last three years.”

Landsec’s update on its resi position follows another in September in which the company said it would commit no fresh capital to development projects in the near-term, focusing instead on adding more retail to its portfolio.

The Liverpool ONE owner began work on the first office at Mayfield earlier this year; the 230,000 sq ft asset is the first new-build speculative office development in the city for some time.