Landlords Wanted
MANCHESTER City Council and Abu Dhabi United Group, the owners of Manchester City, have formed a joint venture partnership that will transform the housing offer in the city.
Up to £1billion of investment is available over the next decade to build 6,000 new homes for private rent in a sweep from Great Ancoats Street out to the Etihad Stadium.
It’s a massive coup. A game changer on a national scale.
If Manchester gets it right in terms of design, space, management and community it could set the standard for the rest of the country in terms of rental property.
There is also the provision for other multiple investors to be involved.
The deal has been a long time in the offing with whispers of large scale Middle Eastern funds first emerging at the end of last year. That it’s only being announced six months later shows the complexity and hard work needed to make it happen.
Chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has played a major role. As one insider said: “He’s not just swum the Channel to bring this one off – he’s swum the bloody Atlantic.”
While people may feel he can be out of touch with some city issues, as readers have pointed out on these pages, Bernstein certainly has flair in pulling off these macro-investment deals.
Sir Richard Leese said: “The planned transformation of the eastern edge of the City Centre is the single biggest residential investment Manchester has seen for a generation. Building thousands of quality new homes will be a fundamental part of our growth story and will deliver significant socio-economic impact. We look forward to working with Abu Dhabi United Group to create a world class exemplar of regeneration.”
The partnership will be called Manchester Life and development will happen in phases with the first phase of 830 homes being built across six sites in Ancoats and New Islington. Image: Ashton Old Rd Recent Housing.
Working out from the city centre into areas which have already had significant public and private investment makes sense, not least because the city now owns the sites in question.
Initial designs are already being drafted and construction could start as early as next year if plans are completed and approved with a newly formed Manchester Life Development Company overseeing the build. Such large scale development is likely to be the catalyst giving new businesses the confidence to open in these areas.