It begins work on its first PRS scheme at Port Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter next month and is also at an advanced stage of planning for its second scheme in nearby Ancoats.
It is also looking at a number of other sites in the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and New Cross areas of the city over the next three years. Its current PRS pipeline is worth £250m in terms of property value and represents £150m of construction contracts.
The schemes will be built under the developer’s Mulbury City division which specialises in PRS and other investor-backed city centre development opportunities. Lymm-based Mulbury has opened an office at 3 Piccadilly Place in the city centre to lead its PRS plans.
James Alderson, head of Mulbury City, said: “We’re currently in positive discussions with an institutional investor for our PRS scheme at Port Street and work begins at that site next month. We’re very close to submitting a planning application for a site in Ancoats and several other site acquisitions are progressing well.
“We’re helping to meet a range of housing needs across the region and city centre PRS housing is one of those solutions. 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. These are exciting times for us and for Manchester.”
Mulbury gained planning permission in September 2015 for its £30m PRS apartment scheme at Port Street on the edge of the Northern Quarter. The eight- to 14-storey development, designed by Tim Groom Architects, will provide 134 homes, ranging from 400 sq ft studios to 900 sq ft three-bedroom apartments. The ground floor includes reception and lobby areas as well as 6,000 sq ft of commercial office space. The upper level apartments have views of the city with balconies for all units and communal roof-top gardens.
All apartment types in the development meet the recently adopted London Design Guide Space Standards making them around 10% larger than many of the apartments currently on offer in the marketplace.
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