Even those people who usually over-hype the property market admit that Manchester has a massive over-supply of new build flats and the general opinion seems to be that many are pokey and poor quality. If you walk round the city centre you can see that blocks that have only been up a couple of years already look quite tatty.
One estate agent alone (RightMove) seems to list more than 75 flats for sale in Beetham Tower.
"DTZ research shows the flat market in Manchester grew from 1,000 in 1997 to 16,200 at the end of 2007. Manchester city centre has around 3,300 units under construction, which will bring the total stock up to 19,500. There are a further 11,300 units in the planning pipeline for the city centre. If these are built, this would bring the total stock to 30,800."
Glut on the landscape - Property Week
1960's council tower blocks are spacious and substantial by comparison (many have two bedrooms and proper balconies). So you don't need to be Russell Grant to see how this could end up 20 years from now...
Thousands of run-down ugly flats that no one wants to live in and only the most desperate people will take... In fact, some people say that many are currently rented (from buy-to-let landlords) by relatively low-paid service sector employees. Just the industry that will be first to be hit if we have a recession, leading many of them to get up and go elsewhere perhaps?
So, in a nutshell, I see big trouble ahead and,sadly, I believe that quite a bit of Manchester's heritage has been swept away in the rush for short-term gain.