Manchester’s Piccadilly East neighbourhood is set to grow once again as plans for a new £28 million development are given the green light.
In what is another prominent milestone for the renowned social impact developers, Capital & Centric have announced that Manchester City Council has approved plans for the new ‘Ferrous’ block in the vibrant neighbourhood, which will feature a total of 107 design-led rental apartments on Chapeltown Street, just a stone’s throw from Manchester Piccadilly station.
Ferrous will act as a neighbour to Capital & Centric’s existing projects in Piccadilly East, which are the historic Crusader Mill restoration, and the new build Phoenix community.
As well as 107 new homes over 15 storeys, according to Capital & Centric, Ferrous will also boast a rooftop residents’ garden, two café-bars, lush pocket parks on the ground floor, and most-notably, The Cabin – a new space for pop-up events.
The 20,000 sq ft site was once protected as part of the expansion of the Metrolink line, but has since been left empty for years.
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It’s official there’s a new kid on the block…Meet Ferrous 👋🏻
Not only are we bringing 107 beautiful design-led rental apartments to Piccadilly East but we’re also adding shared garden and a cabin set to become a community hub to the area. pic.twitter.com/kzddaIJOXJ
The green light for Ferrous will see more street-level spaces for residents to hangout, with the shared gardens, and The Cabin set to become a social hub.
Speaking on the green light, Tim Heatley – co-founder at Capital & Centric – said: “It’s no mean feat establishing a new neighbourhood in a city centre, but Piccadilly East is becoming an awesome place to live and Ferrous is the next part of the story, bringing more new homes with our trademark design-led finish, but crucially more spaces that’ll breathe life in the area.
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“There’s a genuine community forming across Crusader Mill and Phoenix, with owner occupiers forging friendships and making the most of the awesome location, and Ferrous will deliver a new social hangout space, with lush planting and The Cabin – a space for indie pop-ups and one-off foodie events to get people spending time there.
“That, plus the two spaces for café bars or shops should really help foster that close-knit neighbourhood feel, right round the corner from Piccadilly station.”
Construction on Ferrous is planned to start this autumn, and complete in late 2024.
Featured Image – Capital & Centric
Property
Top 10 cheapest UK areas for first time buyers revealed – and two are only an hour from Manchester
Emily Sergeant
The 10 cheapest areas to buy your first house in the UK have been revealed, and two are only an hour away from Manchester.
After it was revealed that more than 70,000 home buyers across England are estimated to have missed the stamp duty relief deadline, which means that they’ll now be required to fork out thousands of pounds extra as of yesterday (1 April), the cheapest places to get your foot on the property ladder in 2025 have now been named.
While the end of the stamp duty relief will mostly affect those who had already previously purchased properties, first time buyers are sadly not exempt, as their current stamp duty threshold of £425,000 has now fallen back to £300,000.
So if you’re looking to buy your first home, this is a list to keep a close eye on.
The top 10 cheapest UK areas for first time buyers have been revealed / Credit: Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)
Property platform Rightmove has crunched the numbers and come up with a top 10 list for those on a budget and considering lower-priced areas they can move to, with the Scottish town of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire being named the cheapest area for a first time buyer to get onto the property ladder, as the average asking price for a typical first time buyer-type home here is just over £84,000.
Scotland keeps on pulling through, as the twon of Greenock in Inverclyde is second on the list, with an average asking price of £88,862, followed by Grimsby in third at £93,427.
As far as the North West is concerned, no residential areas in Greater Manchester have made the cut this time around, but the region’s two representatives on the list are only around an hour away from Manchester.
Top 10 cheapest UK areas for first time buyers
Kilmarnock – £84,325
Greenock – £88,862
Grimsby – £93,427
Blackpool – £93,711
Middlesbrough – £95,473
Hartlepool £99,525
Paisley – £99,570
East Killbride – £100,814
Ayr – £101,391
Burnley – £102,848
You’ll have to cross over the border into Lancashire if you’re looking for a budget-friendly first time home, as Blackpool takes the fourth spot on the list, with an average price of £93,711, and Burnley also makes an appearance at number 10 with an average price of £102,848.
The North overall is pretty well-represented, with other towns and cities such as Middlesbrough and Hartlepool featuring in the top 10, but according to the data, Scotland is by far the cheapest country to get on the property ladder in the UK.
Paisley, East Killbride, and Ayr also find themselves on the list lower down, as well as the two aforementioned Scottish towns in first and second place.
Experts at Rightmove explained that wage growth has unfortunately ‘outpaced’ the rise in average asking prices for first time buyer homes in the last five years, so while this has slightly increased the mortgage borrowing power of first time buyers, affordability is still said to remains ‘very stretched’ overall.
Featured Image – Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)
Property
More than 70,000 home buyers set to pay thousands after missing stamp duty relief deadline
Emily Sergeant
More than 70,000 home buyers across England are estimated to have missed the stamp duty relief deadline.
This sadly means they’ll be required to fork out thousands of pounds extra.
In case you hadn’t heard, up until yesterday (31 March 2025), anyone who was moving and had bought a home in the past was not required to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax, better-known as just stamp duty, on the portion of the property price up to £250,000.
But from today (1 April), this threshold has now fallen back to £125,000, which unfortunately means that property purchasers are facing an extra £2,500 in moving costs, on average.
While the end of the stamp duty relief will mostly affect those Greater Manchester buyers who had already previously purchased properties, first time buyers are sadly not exempt from the deadline changes too, as their current stamp duty threshold of £425,000 has now fallen back to £300,000 as of today.
Person holding the keys to a new house in their hand / Credit: Maria Ziegler (via Unsplash)
Given that the average property price for a first time buyer-type home is currently around £227,965, according to Rightmove, the new £300,000 threshold may hit those purchasing properties in more expensive areas – particularly the South East.
A third of those estimated 70,000 home buyers who have missed the deadline are thought to be first time buyers.
Leading property platform Rightmove published an analysis in February into just how much of an impact the end of the stamp duty relief would have on home buyers, all while calling on the UK Government to announce a short extension to the deadline to help people in the middle of the property purchasing process avoid potentially thousands of pounds in extra moving costs.
But despite these calls from industry leaders, there was no extension to the deadline announced in the last week’s latest Spring Statement.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the Government has not used the Spring Statement as an opportunity to extend the impending stamp duty deadline for those currently going through the home-moving process,” commented Rightmove’s property expert Colleen Babcock.
“We estimate over 70,000 people are going to miss the deadline and complete in April instead, and a third of those are first time buyers.”
Emily Sergeant -
18th March 2022 
