Manchester Property News: Why 2026 Still Looks Bullish Despite Construction Headwinds
If you want a realistic view of the North West property market, you have to separate noise from movement.
Manchester has had no shortage of headlines over the years, but the latest Manchester property news points to something more useful than hype: continued delivery, continued demand, and continued confidence from some of the city’s best-known developers. Even with construction starts slowing, the pipeline and completion figures tell a much stronger story than the doom merchants would like to admit. Place North West reported in February that 5,500 residential units are expected to be completed in Manchester in 2026, the highest figure since Deloitte’s crane survey began, with a further 15,332 homes holding planning permission.
That matters because markets are not built on sentiment alone. They are built on what actually gets delivered.
One of the clearest signs of confidence this year came from Renaker, which reported sales of £280m and pre-tax profit of £9.7m for 2025. Insider also reported that the business is currently on site delivering 1,534 new homes and 861 student beds, with completions due across multiple schemes. That is not the profile of a city slowing to a halt. It is the profile of a market where the strongest players are still moving at scale.
The delivery story is just as important. In January, Place North West reported that Select Property’s One Port Street had completed. The 33-storey tower comprises 477 apartments, was built by Renaker, and was reported as sold out, generating £193m in revenue. For anyone looking at Manchester city centre property, that is the kind of evidence that matters: schemes are not just being launched well, they are being completed and absorbed.
Then there is Salboy, which remains one of the most active names in the market. Place North West reported last year that Waterhouse Gardens, a £195m scheme, was topping out ahead of phased handovers, while TheBusinessDesk reported in February that the group has now launched Salboy Construction to help deliver and unlock complex and time-critical housing schemes. That tells its own story. Serious operators are not retreating from Manchester. They are building deeper delivery capability around it.
There are also fresh signs that the wider skyline story is far from over. In March, Place North West reported that Renaker had acquired the site of a long-proposed 55-storey tower in Greengate, a scheme involving 542 apartments. That is another signal that prime city-centre and fringe-core locations remain firmly in play for large-scale residential development.
At Lion Rose, this matters for a simple reason: we are not watching Manchester from the outside. We are now partnered with Renaker, Select and Salboy, which gives us direct alignment with three names that continue to shape the city’s residential landscape. That matters in a market like this, because access, timing and credibility still count. Plenty of people talk about Manchester regeneration. Far fewer are actually close enough to the right stock, the right schemes and the right conversations to add real value.
The wider picture is straightforward. Construction headwinds are real, and any serious operator should be honest about that. But the strongest Manchester property news in 2026 is not that the city has challenges. It is that despite those challenges, the city continues to deliver homes, attract capital, complete landmark schemes and push new opportunities forward.
For buyers, investors and end users alike, that is the point. Manchester is not standing still. It is maturing. And when a market matures while still expanding, that is often where the most interesting opportunities sit.
At Lion Rose, we believe the next phase of the Manchester market will reward those who focus on delivery, location, quality and access to the right partners, not just headline chasing. In that respect, 2026 is already giving a very clear signal.