Is anyone else flat hunting in Manchester or has experience of it?

[Easterlywind]

I've just started looking for a place in Manchester.

I'm a bit surprised by the low quality of flats in the center (from rightmove). A lot of them seem quite weirdly shaped, with small amounts of natural light. A lot of them have mezzanine bedroom which seems like a bit of a con (no privacy, reduced room height).

Similarly in London it used to drive me crazy when they tried to sell a 2 bedroom house as a 3 bedroom house and the third bedroom was actually the dining room.

Anyway, do you agree with the above and does anyone knows the tricks to get your hands on the nice flats?

Cheers

Are you renting or buying and what's your budget? Does it have to be city centre?

Definitely centre? Manchester is a very small city, I am always confused as to why you would live right in the centre (unless loaded and choosing a massive uncovered brick mill conversion jobby). I live in old Trafford and can walk to Chorlton and deansgate but I appreciate there's no bars etc actually there. The bits of ancoats on the edge of the northern quarter are nice, incredibly trendy and the flats seem normal layouts.

Yy to looking out of the centre on a good tram, train or bus route. I have a lovely huge flat in Salford. I can get into the centre by train in 10 to 15 minutes ( including walk to station) and am right next to a tram stop.

Where abouts in the centre are you looking? It sounds like you're looking at conversions which you'll get a lot of due to the nature of the city but there's also a ton of new builds going up in the city centre.

Buying for about £200k.

It doesn't have to be in the centre but I love the idea of living centrally. I did kind of hope for something with character rather than a new built but gosh prices have really gone pretty crazy in Manchester, definitely missed that train!

We have got family in Stretford and Urmston. I was looking at Levenshulme as well. It's definitely another option but I kind of had that little fantasy about living centrally.

I do some relocation work and I’ve recentlyn placed a couple of clients in the city centre. We saw some lovely apartments but I do agree that some conversions can be a bit odd but they have to work around original features. Both actually went for new builds, largely because they wanted furnished and the furniture etc is brand new.
Where are you looking and what is your budget?

Oh buying not renting I see, sorry can’t help with that as I only deal with rentals

Prices on new builds are being pushed up by off plan selling to overseas investors :/

Outside the city centre flats aren’t common (except in Salford). Have you looked at the Quays area? It’s more or less half way between town and your family.

Ancoats and Hulme are close to town and both have some old industrial conversions.

You could buy a 3 bed house in Stretford for under 200 grand 2 years ago but there has been a rapid rise (l blame the BBC) recently and everything now starts around 220 and goes over asking price.

This is the best city centreish I can see on on RM around your budget:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-77034008.html

What search terms are you using? I've found quite a lot of flats that don't have mezzanine bedrooms by searching for 1 to 2 bedrooms. this for example.

Levy is super fashionable at present - it’s where all the young people who wanted Chorlton or Didsbury have bought!

Betty yes, so many ads say Investors only-that's just wrong! Really nice flat, I must have missed it due to filtering at £200k. Does anyone know if flats usually go for over the asking price or do people still offer under or bang on asking price?
Yes Levenshulme seems to be where it's at at the moment, although I also hear it can still be a bit rough (not unduly worried though, I have live in Longsight before )

Wowfudge-thanks it's super nice, definitely the type of thing i'm looking for. I do wish we'd got in there when you still got 2 bedrooms in a character flat at that price!

Presumably the investors only places have tenancies in place and owners who aren't prepared to give notice to the tenants in order to sell with vacant possession, quite possibly because they can't afford not to have their mortgages covered? Or is there some other reason?

An ‘investors only’ new build near me sold out BEFORE planning permission was even granted, so I think it’s more that they are buying a thing that doesn’t exist yet (the deposits fund the actual building of the place).

People buying for themselves tend to want somewhere to actually live, within a few months timespan, unsurprisingly!

Normally tenanted places are listed like usual and they just say in the listing that there is a tenant in situ. People rarely have longer than a 12 month contract so it usually just drops the price a bit (because the new owner has the trouble of giving notice/keeping a tenant they did not select themselves). Most agents will try and sell a tenanted place to another landlord (I rented my house and bought it directly from my landlord when he decided to sell).

Re: making an offer below the asking price - all you can do is try! As long as it’s not stupidly low you aren’t wasting anyone’s time and a lot of what will dictate it being accepted is stuff you can’t know - the seller might want to move quickly having made an offer elsewhere, for example, or it’ll be based on whether the current market is moving fast or slow.

This time of year you aren’t competing with parents buying for uni children (town centre specific problem) but it can go a bit mad once the letters go out offering places.

I have been wondering about the "Investors Only" places. My impression is that they nearly build the buildings as revenue income for the management company. If you buy you can not move in as they need the management revenue and if you rent you can not go and source a different management company. I could be completely wrong though.

Thanks for the tip about the timing with start of Uni.

I might have another quick look at Levi now! (rightmove is so bloody addictive)

City centre Manchester and borders of Salford are ,IMHO ,a big bubble that will eventually burst . Tower blocks of flats are being put up all over the place, largely financed by overseas investors,mainly chinese. Why is this? Well raw money is being converted into tangible assets that pay a dividend. Gold is no good as that bubble is well inflated as is the general stock market. The general housing market is well inflated so whats left? Well lets build lots of tower block small flats, sell people the concept of being a young thrusting professional living in a pied de terre in the city. A lot of the new stuff isnt available to the open market. Why? Well the big fish buy them all off plan and then rent them out to all the youngsters who will probably never be able to buy. Nett result? They are enslaved to landlords for the rest of their lives.

Yep!

And it’s utterly shit for ordinary people who just want one, suitably sized property in the community of their choice, where they intend to live, work, love, maybe raise families etc.

The purpose built student accommodation thing is another money-making racket. Now that the existing market is saturated in MCR, a billionaire property investor is trying to open a new university in Trafford.

It’s like a black mirror episode, frankly.

arnoldthecat and betty-yes i have to admit I am torn as that is something i have been pondering as well, and I think you are quite right.

It is frustrating though for everyone that loves Manchester and hard to accept the reality of the situation. They are developing with a complete lack of planning for the future, there are no green spaces as they are are hell bent on covering every square metre with rental flats and sooner or later they will manage to strip all the character and personality of a really great city.