News & Views

Neil Tague is assistant editor at North West Business Insider magazine. www.newsco.com

Strange days indeed for property people throughout the North West. Whatever the outcome of the General Election, there’s not a great deal of hope around that things will change too dramatically over the rest of 2010.

North West property’s at something of an impasse. The banks say they’re ready to lend, but the developers say the margins they’re being asked to operate at make it too risky on anything without the most rock-solid of covenants in place. Until the occupier market – that’s businesses, to you and me – returns to being confident enough to demand new space, the phony war will continue.

Drivers Jonas Deloitte may have to come up with a new name for its regular seminar on Manchester development activity, as “Crane Survey” isn’t really the most fitting term any more. The most positive spin one can put on Manchester property is that the development of the new Co-operative Group headquarters, Manchester Metropolitan University’s new Birley Fields campus and the Corridor (as Oxford Road is now branded) will be exemplars of sustainable development.

Although there is little hope of speculative work, there’s justifiable confidence that Manchester, helped by its city region partners, remains the best placed of the core cities. It has MediaCity, while the Mayfield civil service campus could yet provide a bonus.

In Liverpool, English Cities Fund is to build further office space at St Paul’s Square, a quality scheme that has added gravitas to the city’s commercial district, but the strength of occupier demand in the city is questionable – although several key professional services occupiers have leases expiring soon. The most active area of development is hotels, but alone they’re not enough. Max Steinberg, who is to take over from Jim Gill as chief executive of economic development body Liverpool Vision, has a big job on his hands.

There are issues in Lancashire too. Lancaster’s big scheme has had a troubled time of it, while later this month all eyes will be on the public inquiry into Preston’s Tithebarn scheme. Developer Lend Lease and the city go up against objections led by Blackburn and Blackpool, but even if approved, many believe this is a project rooted in the blue-sky days of the mid-noughties.

Conclusion? If you get an invite to the launch of Bury’s The Rock this summer, snap it up. Major opening events over the next 18 months will be rarer than hens’ teeth.