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Investors target city property
(The Birmingham Post Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The statistics are about as good as they get. Birmingham is the top city target with investors wanting residential property stock - and there is plenty more where that came from.
Residential estate agency Knight Frank is being pretty upbeat about the city market's performance in 2006.
Despite all talk of over supply and quieter trading conditions, the city branch of the company's network has sold 25 per cent more new homes in the last eight months than in the same period last year.
And these purchasers are not hanging back, waiting to see if they really like what's on the drawing board before signing on the dotted line.
These buyers are bagging their new properties, off-plan, up to 40 months before build completion - more than three years before anyone can move in.
This is thought to be the highest lead-in time reported in any UK city, believe Knight Frank. And prices per square foot are soaring too. This year has seen prices touch pounds 500, a new record for the city, thought still far from the norm.
Mark Evans, partner at Knight Frank Birmingham said: "We have sold 550 apartments in Birmingham and the West Midlands so far this year to private owner-occupiers and investors, the highest number of any Knight Frank office in the UK.
"We've also sold an additional 400 new city apartments in bulk deals to private investment companies, who are prepared to invest substantial multi-million pound sums into the continue renaissance and popularity of Birmingham."
Buy-to live - and buy-to-let purchasers are still homing in on Birmingham, many making their first investment in property, some to bolster up their pension prospects.
They are both out and about in force though it is the smaller schemes which score highest with the intending owner-occupiers, those who prefer to see what they are getting before handing over a deposit.
And the debate does continue over the "ideal" ratio of one buyer type to the other. "The balance between sales to owner-occupiers who are buying a home in the city and individual buy-to-let landlords is what will ensure the continued sustainability of Birmingham's ever-growing apartment trend."
The demand for city apartments in Birmingham, from whatever quarter, seems insatiable.
"Birmingham is now officially the city most targeted by national investors and investment companies for its prime residential stock. All in all, the statistics couldn't read any better."
Manchester still beats Birmingham in sheer bulk, having many more city apartments. Its city living boom took off earlier, some of it following the 1996 bomb damage and an immediate drive for wider regeneration.
But Birmingham still has further to go. "The furious rate of Manchester's development programme over the past decade has left the city with few prime locations which are still available for redevelopment.
"Meanwhile, some of Birmingham's best sites are now being redeveloped into what will become some of the finest apartments outside of the capital.
"Indeed, our greatest asset is that we still have pockets of prime land to be developed, which is setting the ton for some of the highest quality developments any regional city has ever seen."
Pressure on prices remains upward and demand continues to drive off-plan sales.
Developments in recent headlines have included the famous 1960s Rotunda building, currently undergoing transformation by Urban Splash. Buyers queued up to secure the last available apartments there, willing to splash out on a share of the iconic building.
The final phase of the Mailbox, The Cube has also caught the imagination of the buying public, the first release of speciallydesigned buy-to-let apartments quickly spoken for. Owner occupiers may now take their pick of the units located, and designed, with them in mind.
The first of them will be able to collect their keys sometime in 2009.
The Orion Building by Crosby Homes has also made a name for itself through the innovative collaboration with international design name John Rocha, now launching another new phase as the finishing touches are put to its recordbreaking penthouse, available for pounds 1.65 million.
Other top selling schemes have included Holliday Wharf by Charles Church where only a few units remain available. All established, up and running are Liberty Place and Watermarque, also Centenary Plaza.
And well on its way is Masshouse in Eastside, selling quickly off plan, first completions due in November. Nearly all the 202 homes at Charles Church's Quartz in the Jewellery Quarter have been sold off-plan to a mix of owner-occupiers and investors.
And new names on the block include Viva by Earthquake on Commercial Street, George Wimpey City's Latitude scheme in the Chinese Quarter and the unusual Scholar's Gate on Severn Street right next to the Mailbox, proving particularly popular with buy-to-live purchasers keen on individual converted homes.
marsyalennox@onetel.com
Copyright 2006 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd.
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