Bristol has been identified as one of the UK’s fastest growing hubs for real estate developments across a number of sectors.
Bristol ranked 1st across 50 cities for affordable housing – and 2nd for office, retail, leisure, food and beverage, urban Logistics, self-storage, and multi-family housing.
According to a recent CBRE report that examined a variety of property markets in UK towns and cities, Bristol and Manchester have the highest growth potential for the next ten years, making them the best places to invest in real estate right now.
As part of the research, segments of the property marketing included student accommodation, hotels, office, retail, senior living, and multi-family and single-family housing. Bristol regularly ranked highly, alongside Manchester. When considering variables like GDP, affordability, projected increases in the number of people and households and more.
A bit about Bristol
Bristol’s diverse and young population can be attributed to its high-quality university offerings. This in turn has made Bristol a hardware and software development hotspot. Bristol ranks third in the UK for tech SME’s, behind only Manchester and Birmingham, indicating how attractive the city’s tech ecosystem is to small businesses. Furthermore, Bristol is the most innovative city outside of London, according to Paymentsense.
Bristol has become the most expensive city outside of London to rent a home in the UK, with estate agents receiving an average of 60 inquiries for each listing. Understandably, Bristol is often the go-to city for London leavers, offering a city feel with more green spaces. Access to green spaces has become an important factor for many post-covid; a reappraisal of urban living led to people migrating from capital cities across the world.
Some key facts
The average price of a house in Bristol is £360k, ranking as one of the most expensive housing prices of all cities analyzed in the report
Bristol is expected to see a 12.97% increase in office employment over the next decade
Bristol is expected to see a 3.6% population increase over the next decade
Bristol is expected to see a 5.6% growth in employment over the next decade
Affordable housing
Bristol ranked 1st as the top city in the UK for the growth opportunities in affordable housing real estate.
This research considered metrics such as population, household, and employment growth projections, disposable income, affordability of open market housing, rental and sales stock, and existing waiting lists. Alongside demand metrics, capacity metrics such as supply factors and planning decision speeds were also taken into account.
Strong demographic growth will naturally cause demand for housing to rise. In Bristol, there are currently over 134,000 private renters, nearly one-third of the city’s total population. Private rents have risen by 52% over the past ten years, but wages have only increased by 24%.
With the housing crisis a topic on everyone’s mind at the moment, those able to deliver and invest into affordable housing will meet a much-needed demand in the market which is only set to increase.
Urban Logistics
Bristol ranked 2nd in the UK for the growth opportunities in urban logistics real estate.
GDP growth, consumer spending growth, retail spending growth, and disposable income growth were the main demographic drivers identified in this study. These factors raise demand for consumer goods in cities, with a large proportion continuing to shop online post-covid. Labour availability was also considered through city-wide unemployment rates.
The demand for logistics space in the UK has significantly increased as a result of the recent acceleration of online retail activity. In turn, smaller prime urban logistics facilities situated in the UK’s main metropolitan areas are seeing an increase in demand as part of supply chain diversification.
Businesses find these urban facilities appealing because they can offer more flexible warehouses, hold multiple delivery vehicles, improve cost effectiveness, and reduce end-user delivery times.
Urban Logistics is a high-performing sub-sector of real estate, benefiting from strong occupier demand, and a demand for smaller sized lettable space in industrial and logistics real estate.
Multi-family housing
Bristol ranked 2nd in the UK for the growth opportunities in multi-family housing real estate.
Multi-family housing is defined as one or more buildings within a complex, containing numerous independent residential housing units.
Good quality management, high quality accommodation and building amenities are key factors in driving demand, with student-age population and affordability as the core determinants of Bristol being a growth capital for this sector.
For real estate investors looking to generate passive income, multi-family homes are a good option and should be weighted against the pros and cons of investing in single-family homes.
At Dunkley’s we have a specialist property tax team who are experienced in advising property investors, developers, and entrepreneurs on structuring their businesses both from a commercial and tax perspective. We can help identify, implement, and manage the process of structuring your business so it is done in the most tax efficient way.
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