Investors flock to England’s Manchester

Investors are pouring money into the English city of Manchester, which is seeing home values rise as companies expand their workforces.

Sovereign wealth funds, international real estate funds and domestic investment funds are increasing their presence in the city, Mansion Global reported.

The city has about 49,000 new homes in the pipeline, of which 19,000 are under construction, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

“As one of the (U.K.’s) largest financial centers outside London, Manchester has the ability to attract top grade companies and financial institutions,” a spokesman for Mapletree Investments, a subsidiary of the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, told the publication.

Mapletree owns a number of student housing properties and one of Manchester’s largest office buildings.

“In addition, as one of the top destinations for local and international students in the U.K., the student housing market in Manchester is expected to remain as a resilient asset class,” the spokesperson added.

All that building has some worried about a potential bubble. Cushman projects Manchester home prices to rise 60 percent over the next decade, but the company doesn’t think prices will get dangerously high.

“Capital values are very different to London… where the perception is that prices get so great that actually the market begins to stagnate a little,” said Julian Cotton, an associate director on Cushman & Wakefield’s Manchester New Homes team. “I don’t think we’re going to see that; I think we’re going to see fairly consistent growth over the next 10 years in Manchester.”

Over in London, factors such as Brexit and housing oversupply have turned the city into a buyer’s market. [Mansion Global] — Rich Bockmann