Premium apartment completions grew fastest outside the capital for the third consecutive year. The interesting question is not that it happened, but which cities absorbed the stock without a discount.
Where the stock actually landed
Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds together completed more premium apartments than inner London, and all three absorbed them at or above asking. Edinburgh and Bristol completed far fewer and absorbed them faster still, because neither has the land to build at that pace.
What separated the schemes that sold
- A station within a ten-minute walk, which is worth more than a parking space in every one of these cities.
- A management company appointed before the first completion, not after.
- Ground-floor uses that gave the building a reason to be walked past.
The schemes that did not
Almost all of them shared one trait: they were priced against London rather than against the next street. A premium is a comparison, and buyers make it locally.
The cities that absorbed the new stock had somewhere to walk to.Slateon Research
