Apartment Prices: The Ups And Downs

THE average price of city centre apartments continued to drop in 2011 - but one address did manage to break the £1m mark.

"Sales in the city centre have been slowing up," Mellor said. "First time buyers are still finding it hard to get a mortgage and some potential sellers are having to stay put because they are in such negative equity."

Sales in the city centre have been slowing up. First time buyers are still finding it hard to get a mortgage and some potential sellers are having to stay put because they are in such negative equity.

Flats in some of Manchester's most prestigious developments seeing tens of thousands of pounds shaved off their value.

Confidential ran several of the city's high-end addresses through the Land Registry records and found...well, not a lot really.

In the whole of 2011, there were just three recorded sales in No. 1 Deansgate. There's been completion on a £1m penthouse recently otherwise the most expensive flat was sold for £235,000, a drop of £50,000 in the seven years since it was sold previously.

Two apartments were snapped up in the Beetham Tower; one for £750,000 in January, which had sold for £766,500 in 2007 and another for £249,950 in May, although that had lost £50,000 in value since 2007.

A single apartment in the Great Northern Tower sold for £120,000 in March - a drop of £13,000 in five years.

Two flats sold at the Hacienda apartments on Whitworth Street West - one for £145,000 in July (a drop of £38,000 on its 2004 price) and another for £118,000 in August (£11,000 less than in 2004).

Seven apartments sold in Leftbank, the residential part of Spinningfields - one even fetched nearly £50,000 more than the previous owner paid for it.

Overall, in areas postcoded M1, M2, M3 and M4, there were 412 sales in 2011.

In M1, the average price dropped by £4,700 to £175,719; in M2 it was higher at £287,554 but still dropped by £10,692. In M3, the average price decreased £7,193 in a year to stand at £168,279 and in M4 - which covers the Northern Quarter and Ancoats - the average price was £140,440, down £3,823.

Some more statistics - the most popular development in the city was Crosby's Potato Wharf, with 125 sales, followed by Argent's Piccadilly Place, with 87.

Church Street was the most popular street in the Northern Quarter, clocking up 33 sales. It didn't shift the most expensive property in the bohemian area though - that went in the Smithfield Building on Tib Street for £390,000.

The most expensive in the city was at 1 Deansgate - a £1m penthouse that completed in the last month or so. Otherwise, it was the £750,000 pad in the Beetham Tower followed by a £440,000 home in the Quadrangle.

Manchester is still a strong rental market though. In three of the four postcodes, the average weekly rent was more than £200.

Carolyn Mellor, managing director of Homes4U, told Confidential 2012 was also set to be a tough year for the housing market as many people struggled to get on the ladder.

"Sales in the city centre have been slowing up," she said. "First time buyers are still finding it hard to get a mortgage and some potential sellers are having to stay put because they are in such negative equity."

"Manchester is a strong rental market though, as interest rates are low, so landlords are getting the better end of the deal. Rents are going up because there is plenty of demand. You've got people fighting over apartments."

Mellor said Manchester was still fertile ground for investors, however, who are looking to pick up multiple units.

"It's also a good market for students," she said. "A lot of them live in the city centre already."

You can follow Simon Binns @simonbinns