Construction activity resilient as UK cities build homes
Posted by: electime 29th January 2018
UK regional cities are reporting record levels of construction activity as developers’ confidence for city centre residential development remains strong.
The latest reports in the Deloitte Real Estate Crane Survey UK series monitor construction activity in Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. Each city has seen a sustained or increased level of development across a range of sectors including offices, residential, hotels, retail, education and student housing.
Simon Bedford, partner and regional head at Deloitte Real Estate, said: “Our UK crane survey data shows a collective total of nearly 17,000 residential units currently under construction in these cities, ensuring housing targets are being taken seriously and developers are striving to meet demand.”
Exploring each region, the Birmingham Crane Survey identified 24 new construction starts breaking ground in 2017. The city’s residential development has accelerated with 13 schemes starting construction, up 30% on the previous year, delivering 2,500 new units in 2018 alone.
Student housing schemes are also up (53%) and set to deliver at total of 1,782 bed-spaces. Birmingham’s office development has surpassed one million sq ft for the second consecutive year, with over 1.4 million sq ft currently under construction, affirming developer and occupier confidence in the city.
Manchester’s city centre residential sector shows no signs of slowdown as 20 new residential schemes started construction last year, exceeding 2008 levels for the second year running. The report also notes significant further progress in the office sector with five new developments. Developers are also not shy of building upwards, as six residential schemes will exceed 25 storeys on completion.
Similarly, in Leeds the number of residential units under construction across the city centre is at its highest in a decade – 1,586 units across five development sites. Leeds has also witnessed further growth in the higher education sector with four new starts recorded adding over half a million sq ft into the development pipeline.
