The BRIK-Down
Manchester's rise from post-industrial resilience to national growth model has been quite the road. The results of student and capital inflows have seen the city's core become the real centre of gravity. If 2018-22 was the frenzy, 2025 is the focus. Today's skyline is still evolving, but with a more measured intent. So let's talk about the city centre's housing pipeline, where starts slowed and the quality bar rose.
4448 new homes were completed in the core last year, with around 10,788 currently under construction (Deloitte Crane Survey 2025) still under construction and 11 new developments in the works, despite tighter funding conditions.
Council data puts 1755 completions in 2023/24, mostly high-density schemes where transport and public realm are strongest. And in Build-to-Rent (Manchester's modern housing engine as the UK's largest BTR city outside London), the numbers remain unmatched: 12,988 homes open and operating, 16,161 more on the way, taking total supply to over 29,000 once built out.
The Living Core
Population growth continues to orbit the city centre, now home to approaching 100,000 people. The inflow isn't slowing, although it is diversifying. International arrivals, graduates who stay, and new households feeding the BTR machine all reinforce the city's inner life.
Students are something of a pressure point - and a key reason rents stay buoyant. Data suggests Manchester needs an extra 15,000 student beds to meet demand; this gap in purpose-built student accommodation pushes the studying population into private stock and keeps occupancy stubbornly high.
Average city-centre rent now sits around £1319, up 4-5% year-on-year - but a definite cooling off from the double-digit surges of 2022-23.
The Commercial Core
Walk through St Peter's or Circle Square on a weekday, and the city feels anything but overbuilt.
Office take-up hit 581,500 sq ft in the first half of 2025, with new Grade-A completions nudging vacancy up.
Savills reports 2.9 million sq ft still available city-wide, down 6% quarter-on-quarter. Even so, agencies expect supply to peak and then tighten as stellar spaces get snapped up again. And with footfall up 11.8% year-on-year, according to MCC, agents are right to stay hopeful. The daytime crowd is back, café queues long, and the return to offices growing (bringing that post-work hum with it).
The Shaping Forces
The next act for Manchester won't be about more cranes, but smarter growth.
Locking student housing into the regeneration mix can release pressure on private rental. Keeping BTR projects funded through the cost-of-capital dip can prevent a 2027-29 delivery gap.
And retrofitting older offices into creative, residential, or lab space will soften headline vacancies, all while deepening the city's mixed-use DNA.
From Mayfield's parkland to the new Albert Square and Factory/Aviva Studios, the connective tissue of the city centre is still the greatest investment, doing the heavy lifting for value and vitality alike.
Our Take
Manchester isn't short on momentum, but the mania of 2018-22 is behind us. That's good news, because while the data does show the market has cooled, the city centre boom is far from burning out. Not while we're still setting the benchmark for post-industrial reinvention. So, are we building enough?
Short answer: not yet. But that's what sustainable demand looks like. As long as people keep coming, staying and building here, the next chapter writes itself. And if there's risk ahead, it's not oversupply, it's underestimating the city's magnetic pull for talent, students, employers and investors.
