Average rent in Manchester city centre soars over £1,000 for two-bed home: dearest & cheapest areas

Rent in Manchester city centre rose by nearly 10 % in the last year, according to council data, with the average two-bed home rising above £1,000 a month.

The average monthly cost of a two-bedroom property in the city centre was £1,082 in April, 9.8 % higher than at the end of the previous financial year.

The biggest hikes have been in Chapel Street West and Oxford Road South where rent has risen by 17.3 % over the last year, followed by Piccadilly Basin.

The most expensive neighbourhood in the city centre is Deansgate and Spinningfields where a two-bed home is priced at £1,272 per month on average, followed by Owen Street and First Street at £1,237 per month.

Oxford Road North, where an average two-bedroom property costs £1,117 per month, is the only neighbourhood where prices came down in the last quarter.

Cheapest areas of Manchester city centre to live in

The cheapest neighbourhood in the city centre is Hulme Park and Birley Fields where the average two-bed home is £852 a month, up 12.6 % in the last year.

Elsewhere in Manchester, the average two-bedroom property was priced at £856 a month at the end of the financial year, up 7% since the year before.

The figures have been revealed in a Manchester city council report which shows that the cost of rent continues to increase at all price points across the city.

It came ahead of the council launching its new housing strategy for the city.

According to the strategy, Manchester must build 36,000 new homes across the city over the next 10 years of which 10,000 should be affordable housing.

Manchester city council will sell land on the cheap to housing associations for more affordable housing, build new homes itself and push developers to play their part too, leaders said as they launched the new strategy last week.

The town hall has set up it own development company – This City – which aims to build 500 new homes a year, of which a fifth will be ‘truly’ affordable, with plans in place for the first developments in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter.

The cost of renting many of these new homes will be capped at the level of Local Housing Allowance, making the newly-coined ‘Manchester Living Rent’ truly affordable to everyone in the city, even those relying on housing benefits.

Commenting on the launch of the new housing strategy, Labour councillor Gavin White, who is the executive member for housing and development, said: “We believe that everyone should have access to a safe home in a vibrant community, that is secure and affordable to our residents.

“Manchester’s growth in recent years has presented real challenges to the housing sector and we know that we need to build more houses of all types in every part of the city to meet demand – and to achieve this we’ll need the support of our partners in both the public and private sector.

“However, we are confident that this new strategy will help our residents move into the homes they need, and it will react to a number of challenges, including increasing the number of affordable and social homes, helping people to get a foot on the property ladder, and to make sure housing is a key part of the city’s zero carbon journey.”

The Local Housing Allowance rate for one-bedroom properties is £598.35 a month in most of Manchester, except in Wythenshawe where it is £523.55.

For two-bedroom properties, the Local Housing Allowance rate is £648.22.

The average cost of a two-bedroom property is higher than the Local Housing Allowance rate in all 32 council wards across the city while only five have an average rental price for a one-bed home which is covered by housing benefit.