Tiktok influencer blasts soaring rent prices in Manchester city centre

A Manchester influencer has gone viral with a TikTok video about soaring rent prices and flat availability in the city centre.

In the one-minute video, which now has over 2.3 million views, 25-year-old Jess Geary expressed frustrations about her ongoing flat hunt, saying it had put her off city-centre living.

She said: “This is a public service announcement from me to you: Don’t f****** move to Manchester.

“There’s no flats. There’s no flats available.”

Jess explained in an earlier post that she is being forced to move out of her current flat as her rent is being raised from £1,000 to £1,300.

The influencer, who has 47,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube combined, said she is concerned she will soon be left homeless.

She said: “I’ve been on the phone every day, I’ve had no sleep. I’ve not ate.

“I move out of here in a week and, let me just tell you, I’m not paying £2,000 for a two-bedroom flat in Salford. Are you joking?

“I know there’s a housing crisis, I get it. It’s horrendous, it’s horrific.”

Many commenters said they had faced similar problems with competition for flat viewings or high rents, but some were less sympathetic

In response to some of the negative comments, Jess explained on TikTok: “I do have two retail jobs, I am a student and I don’t have any help from my parents.”

Other Mancunians have taken to the comment section to express similar frustrations with the city’s housing market, blaming an ‘influx’ of southerners to the city and a lack of affordable housing.

User Annabel Grace commented: “All the new builds are built for people with huge salaries, us Mancunians who don’t wanna move out of the area, are legit forced to now.”

User Ross Hunter Duffy commented: “Manchester hasn’t been affordable for years. It’s basically a smaller version of London now.”

Jess has been updating her followers on her progress, saying that she had been contacted by an estate agent since posting the viral video and had a flat viewing on 23 August.

ManchesterWorld has contacted Jess for further comment but in an update this morning, Jess said she had not heard anything yet, but “had a good feeling about this one.”