It hasn’t been a vintage year for property in the North West, or indeed anywhere. We’ve seen some well-respected names bite the dust, redundancies across developers, agents and other professional advisers and deal volume slow to a crawl.
There seems to be an acceptance that with confidence on the floor and the banking system still tangled up, we’re in for a tough 2009, but amid the darkness there must be some spots of light. Here are a few reasons to keep smiling:
The pride before a fall
No one likes to see a good business suffer when it has provided employment, done good work and contributed to the betterment of the North West. But a few chancers have been blown out of the water this year for whom not many will shed a tear. Maybe in future goggle-eyed councils won’t listen to people with no development track record promising in good faith “of course we can build a skyscraper, nothing to it!” Here’s hoping anyway.
Action on empty rates
November’s changes were too little too late, but at least it’s a start. The changes to empty rates relief that came in April always were a blatant piece of tax-gathering the government might just have got away with in a busier market concentrating on other things. The mobilisation of opinion against the changes, although late in the day, has been impressive.
Pockets of excellence
The volume of new projects may have slowed, but some really good schemes commissioned in the past few years opened their doors in 2008. Liverpool’s got its shiny new arena and some excellent office schemes, old and new, such as St Paul’s Square and Exchange Flags. In Manchester the new stuff is set off by little gems such as Nikal’s redevelopment of Mynshulls House and Britannic Buildings. Hopefully, West Properties or Ask, or both, can get their bigger schemes up and running to pull the area up.
Calling a halt to the craziness
Every cloud has a silver lining and the freezing up of funding lines to any Tom, Dick and Harry with an apartment scheme up his sleeve may be for the best. Some questionable city centre schemes have been pulled, while if any town or village centres can avoid being assailed by the sort of new-build that landed in Didsbury village last year, or on Wilmslow’s Blue Lamp site, it has to be a good thing.
Retail therapy
OK, retail’s suffering. But despite King Street’s decline, Manchester still gets the footfall and has added enough new bits to look tidy, while Liverpool's city break offer has been enhanced thanks to Metquarter and Liverpool One. Contrast with northern rivals Leeds and Sheffield where long-awaited major retail schemes have hit the blocks in recent months.
Banking on a better 2009
Surely at some point things have to pick up and some positive noises will come from the banks. There are investors out there with cash to spend but haven’t yet been convinced the time is right to get back into the game. Although no one is expecting miracles in 2009, a gentle uphill curve a year from now will do just fine for many.
Neil Tague, assistant editor, Insider