Will Manchester's Incredible Building Boom Ever End?

The latest construction news in Manchester - planning permission being granted forfive more skyscrapers, including one that will become the tallest in the city - is unlikely to have raised many eyebrows.

It is not just that very few tall building projects in the city region struggle to get planning permission, the only notable case being the  St Michael’s scheme involving former footballer Gary Neville; it is the sheer volume of skyscrapers and other building projects that have emerged in recent years.

Even a new tallest building (the Lighthouse) is hardly news, with two more proposed in Manchester and Salford that would be even higher.

What all this means is that there is always a lot of demand for construction plant equipment in Manchester. That is not about to stop soon because there are several more skyscrapers and other projects in the pipeline. But is there a point where this dramatic building boom will come to a halt, or at least slow down?

One point where it might is when the availability of brownfield land diminishes. This is already happening in the city centre, but what may happen is that this transfers the building boom to other areas, perhaps not with residential skyscrapers (although the city centre itself is effectively expanding), but certainly in housing as the local population keeps growing.

Among the areas where there has been little brownfield regeneration until now is Stretford. But Far East Consortium, a developer with several Manchester sites in its portfolio already, has formed a joint venture with Trafford Council and the Greater Manchester combined authority to redevelop the former Greater Manchester Police HQ site with 750 homes.

Nearby, plans to redevelop Old Trafford Football Stadium - possibly with an entirely new venue - are the centrepiece of a blueprint being drawn up to transform the whole vicinity, creating jobs and building homes.

In doing so, Manchester United are catching up with the ‘other’ Old Trafford, a redeveloped cricket ground now flanked by the under-construction Lumina Village apartment development, where 199 of the 639 homes will be affordable.

It appears the Manchester building boom won’t end soon at all; it will just keep on finding new places to happen.