Greater Manchester Property Outlook: What’s fuelling Salford’s meteoric rise?

It's been a stellar start to September with 2025’s instalment of our annual Property Outlook taking place at Material Source Studio Manchester.

Whilst billed as focusing on Salford, the session took attendees on a residential journey through the Greater Manchester region.

Steering the direction of conversation were two extremely well-placed panellists, who joined host, Material Source director, David Smalley on stage. Euan Kellie, founder, Euan Kellie Property Solutions, and David Fairclough, director, Progressive Living Developments, discussed the exponential changes they've seen over the course of their careers - presenting both tough challenges, and ample opportunity in equal measure.

As always, much ground was covered in just an hour by both the panel, and our audience who asked thought-provoking questions throughout.

In the piece to follow, we highlight some of the key talking points.

Barriers and hurdles

To begin, David Smalley asked the panel, “What’s changed in the world of property during your time in this sector?”

For Euan, the question was a particularly poignant one. “This month is a very personal one for me. I came to Manchester in '95. So, this is the 30th anniversary of me being here. Since then, the property sector has changed enormously.”

After the Manchester bombing attack in 1996, Euan had a book published called, Rebuilding Manchester. Since that time, the greatest marker of change for the city, he said, is “scale”.

Referencing the Beetham Tower – a project he worked on back in 2003, Euan commented, “At that point, a 47-story building in Manchester was just stratospheric. It was on a new level in terms of size, scale, and proportions. It was very, very different.”

But 2003 was a different time, Euan went on to say. Right down to how we communicated. There was of course no social media. “Objections were coming in via fax”, he laughed.

“Aspirations” are another thing that’s changed, Euan believes. And that goes for Greater Manchester as well as the city centre. What were once considered no-go zones are now necessary for redevelopment because of population growth. “The boundaries within which people do business have dissolved in the last 10-15 years”, Euan added.

“Have these changes been positive?” David Smalley asked. “Very positive”, replied Euan.

Panellist David Fairclough was asked if he would be inclined to agree? He had a different perspective to share. “I’m coming in from a construction background – having worked on rural listed barn conversions to 40-story towers in the centre of Manchester, and anything in between. What I’ve seen are the boundaries, and the hurdles, that have come about.”

The hurdles David referred to being predominantly entwined with The Building Safety Act, and specifically Gateway 2. When asked how it had impacted the sector, David replied, “horrendously.” Over the summer it was reported that, “the current average delay to a HRB (Higher Risk Building) project is 18-22 weeks at Gateway 2 alone.” (Source)

Timescales of which David is no stranger to, with his own project – a scheme in GreenGate, Salford, being subject to such lengthy delays the funding was prematurely pulled.

“We spent the best part of five years bringing the scheme forward”, David explained. “The 42 storeys were a bit over 18 metres, and with The Building Safety Act coming in, it just put so many barriers in the way. We couldn't put an end date on the project, because there was no end.”

Euan agreed the ‘red tape’ on projects has most certainly increased. As town planning advisors, he added the number of documents that now have to be submitted on a scheme compared to pre-BSA. “I started my career in local authority, in the validation team. You'd get five or six documents, hard copy, and that was it. Bang, it's validated. And now, for a big scheme, you probably need 30.”

Community and co living

Sticking on the topic of Salford, and what sets it apart from other areas of Greater Manchester, host David Smalley, asked the panel about co living – a concept that appears to have very much been embraced by the council there.

What exactly is co living? “It’s small units, shared facilities”, David Fairclough outlined, “originating in Europe” - not, as many have said, in the US.

As with anything new to market though, co living hasn’t avoided scepticism, Euan said. Speaking of planners, he commented, “The challenge a lot of the time with planning is that it has to catch up with the market. Schemes obviously take a long time from conception to completion. And I think local authorities need to have the confidence in seeing an end product to be able to say, ‘Oh yeah, we get it. This is how it's going to work.’”

This is a process Euan has experienced first-hand with BTR when it first emerged in Salford a decade ago. It was the Blackfriars scheme. And it marked a shift in the way people wanted to live, said Euan. From cut-off to community living. A solid proof of concept can abate any misconceptions around this style of managed residential, he believes. “Without that, nothing happens”, he added.

“Where are we now?” asked David Smalley. “What’s the message from the planners?”

In Salford, it’s "let's get something built”, David Fairclough replied. "We'll give you consent. We'll take you by your word. Let’s get one up, let's get it operated, let's see how it works."

As for Manchester city centre, there are currently no co living schemes in the pipeline.

“Is co living where BTR was 10-years ago?” David Smalley questioned.

Euan thinks it is. “Co living's in that bracket at the moment.”

According to Savills, currently (as of April 2025), BTR accounts for 2% of the UK PRS, with higher percentages in urban areas. In Manchester, nearly 25% of PRS stock is now BTR. And two thirds of all BTR in the UK is either in London or Manchester.

In reference to this, David Smalley asked, “What’s the next iteration of BTR?”

“Single family housing is massive”, both Euan, and David Fairclough agreed. “That's going to grow exponentially”, David said – “there are plenty of developers working on these schemes, it’s big business.”

Beyond the boundaries

Looking beyond Salford, David Fairclough mentioned a project his company, Progressive Living, is working on as developer in collaboration with Shannon Conway’s Picture This as the operator. “We’ve just received planning consent for 245 units. The scheme is amenity lite. And the resident-base is cradle to grave – from graduates to downsizers. From Stockport it’s only 7-minutes to Manchester.”

The amenities included in this particular development prioritise space, with a shared launderette meaning greater efficiency inside the apartments. Plus, wellbeing, with an allotment on the roof.

It’s been six-years in the making. Something David shared is standard timescale-wise now.

A question from Owen Tracey, senior architect, BakerHicks, in the audience asked, “If you look at 15-30 years ago where The Lowry was the catalyst for MediaCity and the Co-op was the catalyst for around here [NOMA], is there still a need for a catalyst building to spark that development?"

“The thing with Salford and Manchester in particular”, Euan replied, “is that a lot of the change that's happened over the last 40 years has actually been in very high-level masterplans and frameworks and initiatives for the areas, that I think have then led to the landmark schemes happening.”

Referring back to the velodrome, that was the “vision for that whole area where the Etihad is from the 1980s”, he added. “And it was the same with The Lowry, that was all enterprise zones from the ‘80s. So the ‘embryos’, if you like, are deep-rooted in sites. But it can take a long time for suddenly the landmark building or scheme to come forward. There's a lot of work that goes on in terms of that prior to delivery.”

To David Fairclough, host David Smalley asked for some context around working with investors in Greater Manchester. “It’s horses for courses, really”, he commented, “It depends on the scheme, on the size. We put together an investment deck, and in the old days it would have been on the hoof we’d ‘sell it’, but now of course it’s over email.”

“What kind of asset classes are attracting investment here?” David Smalley continued.

PBSA (Purpose Built Student Accommodation) came up as “massive”. Euan had just, that morning, secured planning for a big PBSA scheme – 364 beds - in Salford. This particular market is doing well, Euan said, because of overseas investment. There’s demand, and a lack of supply. Referring to the contrast in PBSA schemes now, to how they were in the 1990s, he suggested there’s been a “paradigm shift”.

From PBSA to BTR

“What’s happening with BTR (Build To Rent) in this region then?” David Smalley queried the panel.

Manchester is said to have the highest proportion of rental homes in the UK currently. But with rents increasing, can the formula be sustained?

In Euan’s experience, there’s still a drive for clients to deliver BTR schemes. However, The Building Safety Act, and the resulting timescales, have “had a ripple effect in terms of clients thinking about schemes and what they can bring forward in a reasonable timeframe”, he added. “I think the demand is still there, but equally I know that clients are considering other options for delivery. I think there'll be more of that.”

This point about timeframes has impacted the way funding works, David Fairclough shared. Traditionally, a funder would buy the site and pay the developer. However, more commonly than not now, the developer has to secure the site, plus get planning and Gateway 2 approval before investment is released. “The funds are still there”, he said, “but we carry, carry, carry as developers. And now a different pent-up demand has been created because supply is drying up.”

In addition to this, Euan commented, is the “challenge with affordable housing, where the authorities are quite rightly very focused on delivering it. It's a priority. Manchester has it in its plan, and Salford has its Good Homes strategy. They’ve both got a very clear vision. For every client we have to demonstrate they can deliver affordable – it’s not a criticism, just a process we now have to go through.” This policy is also not just city centre focused, Euan reminded the room, but borough wide.

A collaborative effort

“Euan, can you tell us about the Crescent Masterplan?” David asked.

“With the Crescent, we've looked at it through a number of layers”, Euan replied. “We first looked at it in 2014 when we were advising Salboy on the areas that run off Salford Crescent Station. It had a brilliant vision, because when you look back at Chapel Street, there was no connectivity whatsoever.

“Now though, Salford and Manchester are working together. There’s such collaboration. And the Crescent is a continuation of that. It’s driven New Bailey, Chapel Wharf, Middlewood Locks – a great venture with another 10–20-year programme.

“At the planning committee earlier today, we talked about Salford Rise, a bridge connection that’s part of the Crescent Innovation North, which will link bits of Salford right into the heart of the Frederick Road University campus.”

This is a “game changer”, Euan said, because “that just drives and funnels investment into the already very popular university and encourages more investment, more students, and everything else that ripples out from it.”

It’s this layering of frameworks that drives proper placemaking and secures investment for 30-years plus, Euan believes.

The key to success, he said, is when all stakeholders work together. From the development team, to the highways team, to the planning department.

This prompted David to ask, “How are the planning departments doing in general?”

Last year, the government pledged £46 million of additional funding for the recruitment of 300 junior planning officers. Has that had an impact?

In Euan’s view, the authorities are doing “really well” despite the challenges they are facing. “Everything is judgement-based. They have to weigh through representations where even though you've got people supporting schemes and being proactive, you've equally got people protecting their assets”, Euan added by way of context.

“For me, it's a simple supply and demand exercise. Is there a supply of people coming into the profession? No, not enough. Are people leaving the industry? Yes, they are. There are not enough people, and there's still huge growth on applications coming in.”

People and place

Considering the rise of community-based residential concepts in the region, whether BTR or co living, David Smalley asked how much a scheme can actually benefit a community, genuinely.

David Fairclough thinks developers are in a lucky position to have some influence on that, though not all – “we have to value that and do the best we can with it, but on the flipside, a lot of it comes from the direction of the local authority.”

Currently working on the aforementioned scheme in Stockport with Picture This, David shared the local authorities have embraced the community-centric approach. With its amenity lite offering to keep the rents reasonable – to “keep it real” as David nicely put it – the laundrette, for example, is community facing.

For Euan, connectivity plays a vital role in securing planning for his clients’ schemes. “In Manchester and Salford, when a scheme comes onto our desks, we have to ask how will it connect with the wider region? And that’s changed a lot in the last 10-15-years.

“We've got a big BTR scheme on Riverside Retail Park going into planning in two months’ time - 800 units, and that’s all about connections and connectivity. There is a community focus there in terms of making sure you're not just ‘teleporting’ a big development in, but there’s connectivity between sites.”

David Smalley asked whether there were any stand-out examples of schemes that were proving this in practise?

Euan highlighted New Jackson by Renaker. “That's a belter”, he said, “because that's a case of a site which was under-utilised for years - used to have a tin works on it. Now, that's got the school in there – the first new school in the city centre for years. It's got padel courts, it's got multiple restaurants and bars. You could have thought ‘just cram as much resi on there’. But no. It’s very much community focused.”

New Islington he pointed out as another great example.

David Fairclough shared that there used to be a requirement for active frontage – “but there’s just no use for it.”

“What does work well?” asked Joyce Clutton, interior designer, from the audience.

Euan gave the example of the Blackfrairs scheme by Salboy, where the original corner pub was restored and made central to the development. “That’s a brilliant example because it’s driven investment and activity to it as a destination, and it's part of a wider scheme.”

On the topic of the Building Safety Act, audience member, Frances Phillips, architect associate, BDP, mentioned the issue faced by the sector in terms of the small pool of Building Control Inspectors who are suitably qualified to review HRB applications. “I think that is a shame for places like Salford”, Frances said, “because with the co living schemes, for example, that’s such an opportunity to grow new kinds of communities.”

On this point, Jay Adams, construction industry specialist, SAS International, asked, “Is there a storm on the horizon for Salford?”

Euan believes that to start, planning could perhaps benefit from some more positive PR, saying, “Firstly, I don't think our industry's planning is promoted positively, is my honest answer. I think the industry's brilliant, and I want to contribute to making people aware of how good it is. We work with amazing professionals.

“Do I think there’s a storm on the horizon? Yes. There's no slowdown, and unless there's a change to, never mind regulation, but planning officers just having less things to deal with, which is unlikely to happen any time soon...”

“…AI?” David Smalley suggested.

That brought the session to a close, for now.

The conversation continues at our upcoming roundtable in Manchester. And, in the meantime, a huge thanks to our guests, our panel, and to our supporters of this event, Cupa Pizarras, SAS International, Parkside Architectural Tiles – all Partners at Material Source Studio.