Au Revoir and Auf Wiedersehen: Manchester Beats Paris And Berlin In The Skyscraper Race

Paris and Berlin may be the biggest names in European property, but Manchester is winning the race for skyscraper development, and winning easily.

Manchester-based residential property manager urbanbubble has published research showing that Manchester has 21 ‘tall towers’ under construction, more than the 17 in Paris and 19 in Berlin.

The towers are the high point of a wave of 53 residential schemes being delivered, bringing 35,990 new apartments over the next four years.

The firm estimates that the population of central Manchester's downtown neighbourhoods will rise some 50% to 154,357 by 2022.

The central core area takes in Manchester city centre and neighbouring wards in Salford and Trafford, where the city living trend is booming.

The future population figure is calculated from an average occupancy of 1.4 persons per home, based on urbanbubble’s current portfolio of 4,500 apartments under management in Manchester.

Urbanbubble defines skyscrapers as buildings of more than 20 storeys.

The firm predicts the new towers will outclass earlier waves of city living.

“The first city living phase saw Manchester blocks spring up with living experience and customer journey design low on the priority list," urbanbubble founder Michael Howard said. "However, plenty of people live in them and the demographics strongly point to all levels of amenity continuing to find residents to suit different levels of housing product."

“It’s in the developer’s interest to create a community so residents move in and want to stay long-term. We are seeing a revolution in the new generation of schemes, not only in amenities but also in rental terms, with no fees, open-ended leases and a much fairer approach to deposits.”