As a relatively new business, Mulbury has enjoyed many ‘firsts’ in the last five years.
This includes our first affordable housing development, first care scheme, first ‘city-living’ project, first mixed-use development, first awards and, more recently, our first private rented sector (PRS) scheme.
In March, we’ll see another first as we make our maiden voyage to MIPIM, the international property and real estate exhibition in Cannes.
We were hugely proud and excited to be invited to be part of Marketing Manchester’s delegation at MIPIM 2016, which is largely a result of our plans to develop a number of high-quality PRS schemes in Manchester city centre.
We gained planning permission for our first PRS development, a 134 apartment scheme at Port Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, in 2015 and we start work on site this month. It’s an incredibly important milestone for us and we’ll soon announce an investment partner for the £30m scheme.
We’re also at an advanced stage of planning for our second PRS scheme in nearby Ancoats with plans to build a further 1,200 PRS units in the centre of Manchester over the next three years with additional sites identified in the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and New Cross areas.
This pipeline is worth £250m in terms of property value and represents £150m of construction contracts.
While it’s true that PRS is still a relatively untested housing model, the demand for the homes is there and so is the supply of investment funding opportunities from institutional and private investors, both at home and overseas.
We’re speaking to potential development partners on an almost daily basis at the moment and MIPIM represents a great opportunity for us to cast our net even further.
We have a busy schedule and look forward to meeting as many property professionals and developers as we can to share knowledge and discuss new opportunities.
These are exciting times for us as a business, as well as for Manchester and the wider region. We hope we’ll do the city proud.