Birmingham is booming! In 2017, a study found Birmingham to be the most improved city in the UK to live and work in. Since 2015, Birmingham has seen the £600m reopening of New Street station, the £50m redevelopment of The Mailbox as well as the £150m launch of Grand Central shopping centre and its flagship John Lewis department store. These major infrastructural changes, coupled with the prospect of the HS2, put Birmingham ahead of cities such as London, Milan and Paris in terms of international investments. Birmingham now has an economy of £24.8 billion, the strongest recorded outside of London. Currently, there are numerous property developments in and around Birmingham which are transforming the UK’s second city. Let’s see some of the best ones:
The new St Mary’s development in Moseley
Moseley, which was famously voted “The Best Place to Live in the UK” in 2015 by The Sunday Times, is one of Birmingham’s most attractive and green suburbs. Centrick Property grabbed the opportunity to build 22 luxury apartments, 14 on St Mary’s Row and 8 on Oxford Road, near the new Marks & Spencer Foodhall. The meticulously designed apartments boast spacious living, quality fittings and neutral decorations, including luxury bathrooms. The apartments are still under construction, but the value of these properties will increase more in the next few years thanks to the opening of Moseley Station in 2021.
Ferndale House
The historic Victorian building, Ferndale House, located near Edgbaston Village, has been restored to create seven luxury residential apartments by Calthorpe Estates. These new apartments are a perfect combination of traditional and modern design and materials. Maintaining a classic architecture, the historical Victorian building will retain its traditional features, including original high skirting boards, cornices, staircases and doors. The spacious one and two bedroom apartments will be situated over three floors which will include trendy kitchens, spacious master bedrooms with ensuite bathroom facilities and fantastic views. The apartments should be ready this spring.
CopperBox
Situated just a three-mile drive away from the city centre, Harborne was voted one of the most desirable places to live in the UK by The Times. The property developer SevenCapital recently transformed an Open University building into “CopperBox”, a mix of 63 apartments across four floors, including eight penthouse apartments on the top floor. CopperBox residents will enjoy excellent transport links into the city, abundant employment options and the vibrant charm of Harborne’s buzzing village scene.
Proposed designs for Exchange Square
Directly opposite the new Birmingham Curzon HS2 terminal and the City’s main Universities and Colleges, the property company Nikal is developing an urban village which will provide new high-quality apartments plus shops, cafes and restaurants. It is predicted that with the new opening of the HS2 station in 2026, more people will move to Birmingham and commute to London. HS2 journey times between Birmingham and London will take 49 minutes. The project presents two phases. Phase one includes 603 luxury apartments with a mix of one, two and three bedrooms. These will offer residents stunning boutique hotel style interiors and an on-site. Phase two will see another 223 apartments, making 826 new residences in total at Exchange Square. The apartments will be available later this year.
Colmore Row
BAM is renovating 103 Colmore Row, the replacement for John Madin’s NatWest Tower, which stood empty for more than a decade. 103 Colmore Row will be Birmingham’s most visible office building. Designed by architects at Doone Silver Kerr, the building will also include an 18th-floor terrace and multi-purpose lobby business lounges. The 26-storey tower, which will include two restaurants, a winter garden and offices is due to be finished in autumn 2020.
Luxury apartments, St Paul’s Square
A development of luxury apartments in the centre of Birmingham is on course to be complete by August 2019. Elevate Property Group is behind the Assay Lofts scheme on Charlotte Street, overlooking St Paul’s Square. Elevate’s Sales and Marketing Director David Hofton said, “Assay Lofts will be a flawless fusion of heritage and 21st Century style at the heart of Birmingham’s resurgent Jewellery Quarter. It is proving very popular with young professionals as it is only a few minutes’ walk away from the city’s central business district on Colmore Row.“
Jewellery Quarter
As we already said in our latest blog post, The Townscape Heritage (TH) programme is a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) scheme which wants to regenerate the area of the Jewellery Quarter by creating attractive, vibrant and interesting places where people will want to live, work and invest. Vanessa Harbar, head of Heritage Lottery Fund in the West Midlands, said, “This is excellent news for Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, whose Industrial Middle contains one of the highest concentrations of derelict buildings in the city centre. Now, thanks to National Lottery players, this investment will enable and inspire property owners and volunteers to bring these important historic buildings back into life and back into use.” The project will run for three years from 2018 until 2021.
Birmingham is currently seeing more inward investment than any other UK region, and as a result, the city and its surrounding are growing fast. All these new properties will offer new chances to the buyers to offer new services and job opportunities to the second biggest city in the UK.
If you want to invest in the second largest city in the UK and know more about properties in and around Birmingham, feel free to visit our services or contact us anytime.
