Liverpool plans office boom as supply dries up. A report...  Read more The post Plans are being drawn-up for a massive expansion of Liverpool’s business district. appeared first on Prime Centrum.

Liverpool plans office boom as supply dries up.

A report to city council’s cabinet on Friday will recommend a Spatial Regeneration Framework (SRF) be drafted seeking to develop the district and potentially connect it to the development of Princes Dock in the £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme. The brief, brought forward by the council in partnership with the Liverpool City Region and Professional Liverpool, will be put out to the market early next month and a team is expected to be in place by July.

The business district, which covers 40 acres at the northern fringe of the city centre, predominantly consists of offices. It saw office take-up up rise by 16% in 2016 but vacant office stock continues to fall and now stands at just 958,083 sq ft with only 330,438 sq ft ready to occupy. Based on current projections there will be no grade A office space available in the city centre by the end of the year.

To address the shortage the city council is seeking to support a £200m plan to develop a scheme in Pall Mall, with Kier Property, that will provide 400,000 sq ft of new Grade A office space.

The council is also investing £100m in new road infrastructure at the northern fringe of the district and has recently submitted a planning application to create a new cruise terminal at Princes Dock.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “Liverpool’s business district is a major engine in the city’s economy and its future growth needs to be proactively managed to maximise its potential and further underpin the development of Liverpool Waters.

“The supply of Grade A office space is critical to any successful city centre which is why we are supporting the Pall Mall development but to stimulate demand and provide more supply, which will in turn create much needed jobs in the professional sector, we need a long term vision which this Spatial Regeneration Framework will underpin.”

“The fact is the city centre has boomed in the past decade in its appeal for shoppers, tourists and those wanting to live in a great city centre and the competing needs of a growing population and visitor economy now needs to be addressed to ensure the district remains a dynamic and vital cog in our commercial economy for the next 20 years.”

Steve Stuart, Chair of the Professional & Business Services Board for Liverpool City Region, said: “There is a shared concern between public and private sector about the commercial office market in Liverpool in terms of low rentals and availability of high quality Grade A and Grade B space.

“Working with partners we recommend a framework that enables the proactive development of the commercial district that can meet current and future demands.”

Following cabinet approval a brief will be put to the market in the summer with consultation to follow in the autumn, before a final SRF is submitted in early 2019.

The city council has recently followed a similar process to masterplan for the Ten Streets Creativity District, Knowledge Quarter Gateway and Baltic Triangle.

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Regional cities continue to register above average growth, city house price growth running at 5.2% UK city house price inflation was 5.2% in the 12 months to February 2018 compared to 4.0% a year ago. The divergence in house price growth between southern England and regional cities continues with overall HPI at 5.2%. London growth remains slow at +1%, and the greatest downward pressure on prices is being registered in inner London with prices falling across 42% of London postcodes. Annual...

Regional cities continue to register above average growth, city house price growth running at 5.2%

UK city house price inflation was 5.2% in the 12 months to February 2018 compared to 4.0% a year ago. The divergence in house price growth between southern England and regional cities continues with overall HPI at 5.2%. London growth remains slow at +1%, and the greatest downward pressure on prices is being registered in inner London with prices falling across 42% of London postcodes.

Fig.1

Annual London growth rate slows to +1%

Fig.2 shows the proportion of London city postcodes registering positive and negative growth since 1996. The current coverage of markets registering negative growth is the highest since the global financial crisis. There have been other periods when parts of London have registered falling prices and these are explained by economic and other external factors.

Fig.2

Inner London the focal point for lower prices

The coverage of postcodes with negative growth has risen sharply since 2015. This is a result of tax changes impacting overseas and domestic investors and stretched affordability levels for owner occupiers that have been compounded by Brexit uncertainty. Sales volumes are first to be hit when demand weakens and housing turnover across London is down 17% since 2014. Prices are next to follow but the scale of current price falls remains modest. Most markets registering negative growth are experiencing annual price falls of between 0% and -5%.

We expect the number of local markets with falling house prices to grow further in the coming months as buyers accept lower prices to achieve sales. The net result will be a negative rate of headline price growth for London by the middle of 2018.

The greatest downward pressure on prices is being registered in inner London areas where prices are highest prices, yields lowest and with a greater share of discretionary buyers.

“The latest results confirm our view that house prices in London are set to drift lower in the next 2-3 years. In contrast, house price growth remains robust in the largest regional cities where similar analysis on rising and falling markets reveals no evidence of localised price falls.”

UK Cities House Price Index – published 26^th March 2018

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Liverpool City Council will bring forward a strategic regeneration framework for the 65-acre Sefton Street Corridor, which it has described as a “natural expansion” of the city’s Baltic Triangle district. The area focusses on a major arterial route into the city centre from the south, and has seen significant investment in residential development over the past 10 years. It stretches from around Brunswick Station to the south up to the junction of Wapping and Liver Street in the north, and...

Liverpool City Council will bring forward a strategic regeneration framework for the 65-acre Sefton Street Corridor, which it has described as a “natural expansion” of the city’s Baltic Triangle district.

The area focusses on a major arterial route into the city centre from the south, and has seen significant investment in residential development over the past 10 years.

It stretches from around Brunswick Station to the south up to the junction of Wapping and Liver Street in the north, and incorporates areas between the A562 and Hill Street, much of which is home to industrial development.

It also includes key development sites including the Cains Brewery and sites between St James Street and Wapping.

The city council had previously endorsed a development framework for the neighbouring Baltic Triangle area, but said in order to have “an increased level of control over future development” in and around Sefton Street, it would look to appoint a planning consultant to work up a “robust” framework for the area.

The council said there was no framework or planning document to guide development, and any new framework would have an emphasis on “protecting employment uses in an environment where the city has a shortage of employment land”.

However, the council also said parts of the area would need to be earmarked for residential use “to support the economic growth of the city” but this would have to be “directed to the appropriate areas and sites”.

It is expected any new SRF would sit alongside the development framework for the Baltic Triangle.

The council is due to sign off £75,000 of funding to support the SRF at a cabinet meeting on 23 March. Tender documents are expected to be issued either via a consultancy framework, or by a competitive tender process.

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When Liverpool became European Capital of Culture in 2008, visitor figures increased by 34% generating £754m for the local economy, which has "grown from £2bn to £4bn in the eight years after", said Phil Redmond, chairman of the UK City of Culture panel and the Institute of Cultural Capital. Creative Director, Phil Redmond led Liverpool's year of culture and initiated the UK City of Culture scheme on the back of Liverpool's success. "Culture is the sum of everything we do. Culture is the sum...

When Liverpool became European Capital of Culture in 2008, visitor figures increased by 34% generating £754m for the local economy, which has “grown from £2bn to £4bn in the eight years after“, said Phil Redmond, chairman of the UK City of Culture panel and the Institute of Cultural Capital.

Creative Director, Phil Redmond led Liverpool’s year of culture and initiated the UK City of Culture scheme on the back of Liverpool’s success.

“Culture is the sum of everything we do. Culture is the sum of all our creativity. Culture lays the foundations to build the tourism industry. “If you put on a big event, if you put on a big attraction, you bring in hundreds of thousands of people into the city and it’s the hundreds and thousands of people who bring the cash and cash is the real fuel of regeneration.”

UK City of Culture 2017, Hull was the second city to be awarded the title and the city and is undergoing a process of transformation and regeneration that is unparalleled anywhere else in the UK – acting as catalyst to a new era of prosperity and winning the acclaim of City of Culture.

Hull: the City of Culture in numbers:

The city is undergoing a 10 year action plan with over £1billion of investment, attracting both government and private funding. This investment that Hull is seeing, coupled with the legacy of winning the global accolade UK City of Culture 2017, means confidence in the area and the city’s international profile is the highest it has ever been.

Paramount to the continuation of its development Hull City Council has pledged £250 million into the UK City of Culture Legacy Plan, including investing £36m into a state of the art music and events complex the Hull Venue, £16m into its Cruise Terminal capitalising on its growing demand for European cruise ships as well as £86m into opportunities in its Cultural Quarter.

The UK’s 5 year forecast shows the North West Leading the growth with 16.5% expected, 3.9% above the national average and 7.8% ahead of Central London. The region that has the next highest projection is Yorkshire and The Humber, with Hull at the heart of this ascension.

Most notably, by 2020 Yorkshire and The Humber is set to match the growth in the North West, highlighting that it is earlier in its growth cycle, making now the time to make the most of lower entry levels and a the full benefits of a complete growth cycle.

Source: JLL

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Liverpool City Council has given planning consent to create a canal boat marina at Brunswick Dock’s under-used Southern Basin, which will also include a water taxi pick-up and drop-off point, which will improve connectivity between the docks and provide a unique experience of the Liverpool waterfront. The 44-berth marina will provide additional berths for canal boat visitors, along with access from Brunswick Way. A facilities centre will be built on a floating pontoon in the dock basin, which...

Liverpool City Council has given planning consent to create a canal boat marina at Brunswick Dock’s under-used Southern Basin, which will also include a water taxi pick-up and drop-off point, which will improve connectivity between the docks and provide a unique experience of the Liverpool waterfront.

The 44-berth marina will provide additional berths for canal boat visitors, along with access from Brunswick Way. A facilities centre will be built on a floating pontoon in the dock basin, which includes showers, laundry, and storage services. The basin will also provide direct connections with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

The proposals by architect and planner Cass Associates also includes a pick-up and drop-off point for water taxis to encourage the use of services along the city’s waterfront.

The Liverpool Marina has become popular with canal boat visitors looking to visit the city centre via the Leeds Liverpool Canal. The result has been an increase in demand for berthing spaces within the existing marina in the north of Brunswick Dock and Coburg Dock. There are currently 350 berths at the current marina, with the new proposals increasing the number of berths to 394. It is hoped that by creating an additional space for canal boats at the dock’s southern end, the proposals will free up more room for other vessels within Brunswick Dock.

The Southern Basin sits opposite Brunswick Way and next to the Travelodge by the Sefton Street roundabout. It also sits opposite the Royal Navy’s Northern Regional Headquarters. Consultations were held with local residents, businesses, and the Royal Navy before plans were lodged.

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True to our market leading values, we identify key strategic cities, sourcing...  Read more The post A City in the process of transformation and regeneration that is unparalleled anywhere else in the UK with £1billion of direct investment appeared first on Prime...

True to our market leading values, we identify key strategic cities, sourcing exclusive properties in city centre locations that have the right fundamentals for investment. Our mission is to provide our clients with maximum yields and strong capital growth by sourcing high quality buy-to-let investments, with sustainable rental demand, imperatively, by doing so at the beginning of urban growth phases. This exact purpose is why we now want to focus our investors’ attention on the opportunity presented by the city of Hull.

Hull, a city in the process of transformation and regeneration that is unparalleled anywhere else in the UK, is undergoing a 10 year action plan to develop the city further with over £1billion of investment, attracting both government and private funding. Having been selected as part of a UK master plan to make it the renewable energy capital of the UK, the government has recognised the unique role that Hull is playing in strengthening the UK’s economic growth.

Operating costs in Hull can be 20% lower than the UK average and the city has recently attracted investment from some of the world’s biggest, globally significant brands including BP, E-ON and Siemens; who have just invested £310million with Associated British Ports into their only UK wind turbine blade production facility, generating 10,000 jobs. Home to the UK’s largest port complex, the 4^th busiest in Europe, generating over 47,000 jobs Hull’s economy is thriving, including its digital economy adding £254m annually, having been listed in the ‘UK’s Hottest Digital Centres’ by the Tech Nation 2017 survey.

“10 year action plan to develop the city further with over £1billion of investment”

Featured at the top of HSBC’s UK Buy-to-Let Hotspot list thanks to low average property prices and strong rental demand, Hull is currently experiencing a 70% undersupply of required housing stock set out by Hull City Council. The investment that Hull is seeing, coupled with the legacy of winning the global accolade ‘UK City of Culture 2017’ means confidence in the area and the city’s international profile is the highest it has ever been. Most importantly, and the reason we are presenting this information to our investors, the city is on the cusp on an explosive growth cycle and has all the fundamentals required to bring maximum returns and they can be the first to capitalise on this.

As we prepare to launch our first property development in the City of Hull next year, we have outlined above the key drivers behind the city’s growth.

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