Latest Property Market Trends in Manchester Help to Buy: New Houses in Manchester How to afford a new home Help to Buy Help to Buy: New Flats in Manchester
Latest Property Market Trends in Manchester
- UK house prices increased by 0.2% in May
- Annualised house price growth across the UK slowed slightly to 4.7% in May
- Greater Manchester area sees 4.4% increase in values year on year
- Manchester house prices increase by 7.4% over the past year
- Salford sees 0.3% increase in values over the last month and 4.8% increase in values year-on-year
- Number of homes for sale remains at lowest levels since late 1970’s
* Datasource: Nationwide House Price Index: End May 2025 and
Land Registry House Price Index latest update: 28 April 2024
Nationwide Monthly UK House Price Statistics
Land Registry House
Prices for North West
Month-on-Month +/- March ’16-0.1% February ’16+1.8% January ’16-0.4% December ’15+0.4% November ‘150.0% October ’15+0.2%
RegionMonthly % ChangeAnnual % ChangeAverage Price £ Salford 0.3 4.8 £100,770 Manchester 1.2 7.4 £105,885 Greater Manchester 0.4 4.4 £113,292 North West -0.1 5.3 £116,018
LATEST LAND REGISTRY DATA: completed deals only
Released on 28th April 2025 – the last in the series before the release of the new UK House Price Index, beginning 14th June 2025.
The last data batch from the Land Registry (above) shows that overall property values on completed deals in the North West have fallen by 0.1% during the month of April
Property in North West now showing year on year gains of 5.3%.
A big rise in property values of 1.2% was recorded in Manchester itself over the last month giving a year-on-year rise of 7.4% whilst properties in the Greater Manchester area were up 0.4% on average compared with the previous month, and up 4.4% year on year.
Property values in Salford show another solid rise of 0.3% in values over the last month, creating a 4.8% gain year on year.
*NB Data differs between the Land Registry and Nationwide because the former collects data on completed property deals only whereas Nationwide’s data covers newly-agreed deals that have not yet necessarily completed. The Land Registry data is therefore a little more reliable but Nationwide’s data for the same time period tends to hit the news feeds about 30 days earlier.
FURTHER INFORMATION: How to Afford a New House in Manchester
Latest Property Market Trend data from Land Registry shows prices in the North West remaining stable with a small increase in values of 0.2% in June and up 4.1% since January
- House prices rise 4.1% in North West in the first 6 months since the beginning of 2024
The recent volatility shown in property prices in the North West can be seen in the tables above.
After wobbling as the uncertainty over the general election took an affect the property market in Manchester has stabilised and begun to show signs of steady growth.
Property prices in Manchester now offer both investors and the Help to Buy market some of the best values and returns on capital to be found anywhere in the UK – according to the HSBC’s latest Buy to Let Report (June 2024) – with average rental yields of 7.98% now being achieved on Buy to Let properties in Manchester. With the most competitively valued property prices to be found anywhere in the country (judged by return on investment) it’s reasonable to expect the Manchester property market to continue to perform brightly over the coming 12 months and more. The overall property market in the Manchester area remains ‘fair to steady’ with prices only up 3.6% year on year in the North West, and yields achieved on rental properties in Manchester approaching 3 times the returns achieved in London.
With the residential property market beginning to pick up again in the North West after the uncertainties of the election, Manchester should start to see some serious capital appreciation in property values over the coming years as the gap in yields between London and the UK’s real 2nd city begin to narrow.
- View: Latest Investment Property News for Manchester here
- View: Investment Properties and new Off-Plan developments in Manchester here
April 2024 Manchester residential property enters its second great boom post the IRA bomb as residential flat sales in Manchester City Centre Break New Records.
The Manchester residential property market is officially ‘on fire’. Investors from all over the world, particularly China, are competing with first time buyers to snap up every new-build to come on the market.
With international investors achieving average returns of just 0.5% on their money in their banks, it’s turned the decision to invest in flats in city centre Manchester – with a NET return of 6% – 7% per year – into a very straight-forward decision with a low risk of ‘down-side’ in the near to medium term…at least whilst the government’s Help To Buy scheme continues to underpin the market for them.
First time buyers also realise that with the government’s help-to-buy scheme they can afford to buy their own flat and at the same time often cut the money they currently pay in rent in HALF by buying their own flat. (Compare cost of renting to cost of buying a flat in Manchester below).
As a result of this increasingly fierce competition sales of city centre apartments are now breaking new records.
Matthew Smith, head of sales at Thornley Groves told us: “February is normally a very quiet month, but this time it’s different. We had a record month for sales this February – record breaking for any month in our entire history in Manchester. We closed 39 deals with 19 of those coming in the last week of the month. And it’s carrying through to March too. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
And it’s not just just Thornley Groves breaking sales records in Manchester. Oliver Dolan, senior sales negotiator at Jones Lang LaSalle reports: “This year has really started with a bang with 53 sales in February in total, up from 39 for the same month last year, that’s up nearly 40% against the same period last year.”
Meanwhile Julie Twist properties shifted another record 22 residential sales in Manchester in February, as the city enters its second great boom period for property post the 1996 IRA bomb.
The areas that are currently seeing the most action for prime sales radiating out from city centre are:
M1 Whitworth Street area
M2 John Dalton Street area
M3 Left Bank Salford
M4 Northern Quarter
M15 Castlefield
M50 Salford Quays
Top Manchester Estate Agents by Sales February 2024
1. Jones Lang LaSalle – 53 sales
2. Thornley Groves – 39 sales
3. Julie Twist Properties – 22 sales
With the general uncertainties of general election now in the past, now is the time to act if you’ve been weighing up the pros and cons of becoming a property owner. Consider this: The government has made interest free loans available to anyone who can gather together just 5% of the asking price of any new build property in the entire country. They have become the bank of Mum and Dad. This situation WILL NOT LAST !!! They have only done this to help kick-start the economy after a ONCE IN A LIFETIME financial panic (a panic of the enormity of 2008/9 only occurs roughly every 60-80 years, so we each get just one chance to learn from it).
So use the opportunity you have been given whilst it lasts, because it won’t last that much longer…
How to afford a new home in Manchester
With the election out of the way two things are likely to happen:
- Interest rates will start to rise
- The government will begin to choke off or constrict access to the help-to-buy scheme by increasing either deposits from 5% to 6% to 7% over the coming months, and/or by limiting the amount of money that they are continuing to throw at the scheme in the run-up to the election.
You could say that it’s a bribe designed to ignite the property market ahead of the election… and you’d be right. If people feel wealthier because their property is rising in value then they are more inclined to spend more which benefits the economy and so, the Conservatives hope and believe, you will choose to vote Conservative at the next election. It’s no coincidence that the majority of home owners tend to vote Tory!
And for these reasons, the opportunity you’ve been given through the bankers’ misdeeds of 2008/9 will not last much longer.
With a Help-to-Buy equity loan the Government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your new-build home, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest.
You won’t be charged loan fees on the 20% loan for the first five years of owning your home. That’s better than Mum and Dad!
Example 1: for a one bedroom city centre flat with a £100,000 price tag:
5% deposit raised by the buyer £5000 20% interest free loan from Government £20,000 (5 years to repay through savings on rent) 75% 2 year mortgage fix @ 3.98% on £75k £2,985 interest payment per year
So the cost of running a £100,000 flat = less than £60 per week, whilst the money you save by not wasting it on rent accrues each month and helps to pay off the £20k loan in another 5 years’ time.
Meanwhile for those first two years your living costs are FIXED at under £60 per week whilst your wages should rise.
Example 2 For a 2 bedroom City Centre Flat with a £200,000 price tag:
5% deposit raised by the buyer £10,000 20% interest free loan from Government £40,000 (5 years to repay through savings on rent) 75% 2 year mortgage fix @ 3.98% on £150k £5,970 in interest payments per year
So the cost of running a £200,000 flat = less than £120 per week, whilst the money you save by not wasting it on rent accrues each month and helps to pay off the £20k loan in another 5 years’ time.
Meanwhile for those first two years your living costs are FIXED at under £120 per week whilst your wages should rise.
So the real trick is to LOCK in a low interest rate on a mortgage before rates start to rise.
As demonstrated above, you can get a get a 2 year FIXED mortgage for under 4% per year – 3.98 % (Post Office Help to Buy Government backed Mortgage, for example) – so every £100,000 you borrow costs just £3980 per year in repayments for two years fixed. Will your rent stay fixed for the next two years? Probably not. Your rent will rise and your wages will rise. But for two vital years your mortgage won’t.
So ANYONE currently paying £3000 a year in rent (£60 per week) can afford to pay off the mortgage on a £100,000 flat RIGHT NOW by taking advantage of the Help-to-Buy scheme – so long as they can get together that 5% deposit. So beg your parents or grandparents for a loan – on a decent one bedroom £100k gaff you’re going to need to find £5k. We repeat, this very unusual opportunity is not going to last much longer before they start to tighten the rules – and perversely, the more the market takes off the higher the likelihood that the government will have to choke off access to the help-to-buy scheme and raise interest rates in tandem.
If you currently pay £6000 in rent per year (or you have a trusted friend and between the two of you you pay £6k per year in rent total) then you can afford the repayments on a £200k two bedroom flat in Manchester right now, so long as you can get the £10k deposit together between the two of you. The repayments on a 2 year fixed mortgage of £150k amount to £5970 per year with a Post Office Help-to-Buy Government assisted mortgage.
The Post Office Help-to Buy mortgage deal is one of the best available as we write.
For up-to-minute details of all current Help-to-Buy Mortgage deals try: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/help-to-buy/
Help to buy
Government Help-to-Buy Scheme in Detail – New Builds
With a Help-to-Buy equity loan the Government lends you up to 20% of the cost of your new-build home, so you’ll only need a 5% cash deposit and a 75% mortgage to make up the rest.
You won’t be charged loan fees on the 20% loan for the first five years of owning your home.
Example: for a home with a £200,000 price tag
– See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/equity-loan/equity-loans#sthash.19sHs6ij.dpuf
If the home you bought in the example above later went on to sell for £210,000, you’d get £168,000 (80%, from your mortgage and the cash deposit) and you’d pay back £42,000 on the loan (20%). You’d need to pay off your mortgage with your share of the money.
– See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/equity-loan/equity-loans#sthash.19sHs6ij.dpuf
Government Help-to-Buy Scheme for Established Property (Any Property that is not brand new)
This is a high-loan-to-value mortgage (80-95%) which is supported by the Government’s Help-to-Buy guarantee scheme:
This mortgage guarantee scheme works in exactly the same way as any other mortgage except that under the scheme the Government offers lenders the option to purchase a guarantee on mortgage loans.
Because of this support in the form of guarantees to the lenders, lenders taking part are able to offer home buyers more high-loan-to-value mortgages (80-95%) than would be the case in more ‘normal’ circumstances.
You will still be fully responsible for your mortgage repayments. So if you have a 5% deposit, you will need to take out and pay back a 95% mortgage.
Example: for a home with a £200,000 price tag you will need a minimum of £10k for a 5% deposit and will then be left with mortgage repayments on £190,000 – which can currently be fixed for 2 years at 3.98% with the Post Office Help-to-Buy Mortgage, meaning monthly repayments of just £630 (prices correct at 12.03.15, but are likely to rise as the year progresses if not fixed in advance).
So if you currently pay rent of £630 a month or more you can afford to buy a £200,000 city centre flat – but don’t forget to factor in annual service charges of between £500 – £1500 depending on flat size and exact location.
– See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/mortgage-guarantee/how-does-it-work#sthash.Yw73F2C0.dpuf
Other ways to take maximum advantage of the Help to Buy scheme
1. NewBuy
NewBuy lets you buy a new-build home with a purchase price of up to £500,000 with a deposit of only 5%.
To be eligible for NewBuy, your new home must be:
- your main home (you can’t use NewBuy to buy a second home or a buy-to-let property)
- owned fully by you (you can’t use NewBuy for shared ownership or Help to Buy: equity loan purchases)
- built by a builder taking part in the scheme
You don’t have to be a first-time buyer and there’s no limit on your level of income. But you can’t use NewBuy with any other publicly funded mortgage scheme.
How to apply
You can apply through a developer taking part in the scheme or an approved mortgage lender. The lender will check that you can afford to repay your mortgage, as they would for any other type of home purchase.
Find out what to do next on the NewBuy website.
– See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/other-housing-options/newbuy#sthash.LK7L3Ewt.dpuf
2. Right to Buy – For Council Tenants with at least 5 years’ tenancy
If you are a council tenant with a least five years’ tenancy you might be eligible to buy your home at a significant discount. Some housing association tenants may also be eligible. To check your eligibility and find out more visit www.righttobuy.communities.gov.uk.
– See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/other-housing-options/right-to-buy#sthash.b8Y8nWty.dpuf
3. Shared ownership
Shared ownership schemes (part buy/part rent) are provided through housing associations. You buy a share of your home (between 25% and 75% of the home’s value) and pay rent on the remaining share. You can buy bigger shares at a later stage when you can afford to.
With shared ownership you can buy a newly built home or an existing one through resale programmes from housing associations.
You’ll need to take out a mortgage to pay for your share of the home’s purchase price, or fund this through your savings.
Shared ownership properties are always leasehold and you can buy a home this way if:
- Your household earns £60,000 a year or less. In London this is higher: £66,000 a year for a home with one or two bedrooms, or £80,000 for family homes of three bedrooms or more
- You’re a first-time buyer (or you used to own a home, but can’t afford to buy one now)
If you rent a council or housing association property, then you will receive priority for buying a home through shared ownership. The same priority is given to Armed Forces personnel.
Local authorities with shared ownership home building programmes may have further priority groups, based on local housing needs, such as people already living or working in the area.
People with disabilities
Home Ownership for People with Long-Term Disabilities (HOLD) can help you buy any home that’s for sale on a shared ownership basis if you have a long-term disability.
You can only apply for HOLD if the properties available through the other home ownership schemes don’t meet your needs, eg you need a ground-floor property.
Older people
You can get help from another home ownership scheme called Older People’s Shared Ownership if you’re aged 55 or over.
It works in the same way as the general shared ownership scheme, but you can only buy up to 75% of your home. Once you own 75% you won’t have to pay rent on the remaining share.
Applying for a shared ownership scheme
To buy a home through a shared ownership scheme contact the Help to Buy agent in the area you want to live.
You can also find out further information about shared ownership on Gov.uk
Shared ownership – See more at: https://www.helptobuy.org.uk/other-housing-options/shared-ownership#sthash.0zZaeDr8.dpuf
Changes in Stamp Duty Explained
Changes in Stamp Duty to benefit over 50% of North West Buyers
Over 50% of house buyers in the North West should benefit from the new marginal Stamp Duty changes to property transactions.
The changes were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement (2023) and are designed to help the majority of house buyers by reducing the amount of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) they are forced to pay to the government when they buy any home over £125,000 (the current SDLT threshold is £125,000 for residential properties and £150,000 for non-residential land and properties.)
As a result around half of property buyers located in the North West government office region will see a reduction in the level of stamp duty they have to pay when they buy a property in the area. The Altrincham and Sale West constituency in Greater Manchester has the highest proportion of beneficiaries with 86% of transactions (around 1,500 in 2013/14) paying less stamp duty under the new system, though anyone buying a home in the £125,000 – £600,00 bracket should stand to benefit. Those who live in the chancellor’s own Tatton constituency and whose properties are on average valued highest in the North West, stand to gain the least.
Current Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) rates for UK Residential Property
You pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on increasing portions of the property price above £125,000 when you buy any residential property, whether a house or flat.
SDLT Rates 2024
Up to £125,000 = Zero
The next £125,000 (the portion from £125,001 to £250,000) = 2%
The next £675,000 (the portion from £250,001 to £925,000) = 5%
The next £575,000 (the portion from £925,001 to £1.5 million) = 10%
The remaining amount (the portion above £1.5 million) = 12%
Example: If you buy a house for £275,000, the SDLT you owe is calculated as follows:
0% on the first £125,000 = £0
2% on the next £125,000 = £2,500
5% on the final £25,000 = £1,250
Total SDLT = £3,750
Under the old rules of 2023 you would have paid £8,250 in stamp duty on a £275,000 home compared to £3,750 now: a saving of £4,500.
For those who buy the ‘average’ priced help-to-buy deal – and currently the average price of a help to buy home is £185,000 – the new cost of Stamp Duty is £1,200 compared to £1,850 last year: a saving of £650.