Manchester’s rental market is crazy, with rent prices still climbing ever-higher – but there are still some cheap flats to be found around the city centre.
According to Rightmove’s rental price data, the cost to rent a property has increased 11.6% across the north west from last year.
It means that the average rental price in Manchester is now a little over £1000 a month – ouch.
In fact, if you want to live in the city centre, you’ll struggle to find anything costing less than £800.
There are a few options left though, with one company advertising cheaper, more affordable flats from just £659 a month, right in the heart of Manchester.
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The properties listed with Manchester Apartments are geared towards students and professionals who are looking for a fairly high-spec apartment without paying the eye-watering prices you find elsewhere.
There is definitely a catch though. These pads might be modern and aesthetically pleasing, but they’re also on the compact side.
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As in, you will be sleeping in arm’s reach of your oven…
Manchester Apartments is advertising some of the city’s cheapest flats right now. Credit; Rightmove
But still, for those of us who hate the thought of shared accommodation – you know, fighting over who gets the middle shelf in the fridge, or whose turn it is to take the bins out – these seem pretty ideal.
They’re also priced along the same lines as shared flats in Manchester’s student halls (and anyone who remembers Oak House can vouch for a navy blue wall being a bit nicer than a mint green breeze block).
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There’s a range of studio flats up for rent in a few buildings in the city centre, so you could be calling Princess Street, Great Ancoats Street or Granby Row your new home.
Take this particularly good-looking studio, for example. Yes, you can fry and egg and make your bed while sitting in your dining room, but it looks like a pretty cosy den for £719 a month (and a damn sight cheaper than a similar home in London).
That one’s right by the canal in the heart of the Piccadilly and Ancoats area too, an area that was recently voted one of the coolest places to live by Time Out.
There’s also this Granby Row studio with massive windows at £797 a month, and this Princess Street pad where you might end up with beautiful views of the Kimpton Clocktower building.
Molly-Mae Hague revisits first Manchester flat, now on the market for £185k
Daisy Jackson
Molly-Mae Hague’s first Manchester flat is now on the market for £185k – and the star herself has paid a visit to her old digs.
Those who have been following Molly-Mae since before she shot to serious fame on Love Island will have recognised the backdrop of her recent TikTok video.
The 27-year-old reality TV star and businesswoman posed around the one-bedroom flat, dancing to Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘House Tour’.
The apartment is where she lived just before entering Love Island, and where she and now-fiance Tommy Fury lived briefly when they left the show.
And now that exact flat where she really launched her social media career has been listed for sale, at £185,000.
The corner apartment stands on the 17th floor of Islington Wharf, overlooking New Islington tram stop and right on the doorstep of Ancoats.
Her former landlord, who arranged for Molly-Mae to have one look around her old flat before it’s sold, said that she was a ‘lovely, polite and down-to-earth young woman, and an excellent tenant who looked after the apartment extremely well.’
The one bedroom apartment has double-aspect floor-to-ceiling windows which look across Manchester on one side, and out towards the Pennines on the other.
It’s listed for sale with no chain and the option to include existing furnishings (which seems to include the same couch Molly-Mae had at the time).
The flat also has a kitchen/living space, a communal garden, superfast broadband, and is within walking distance of Manchester Piccadilly.
New measures announced to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords across Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
A cohort of trained enforcement officers are set to hit the streets in all 10 boroughs to help improve the lives of the region’s renters.
Forming part of Greater Manchester‘s commitment to the highest-quality housing standards alongside the Good Landlord Charter, the newly trained enforcement officers will be tasked with protecting tenants, joining Council teams in checking rental properties, bringing enforcement action against bad landlords, and cracking down on illegal practices.
The introduction of the new enforcement officers comes after what has been ‘years of sustained pressure’ on local budgets.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) says it is working with the 10 councils across the region to strengthen local teams, rebuild in-house skills and expertise, and ensure that powers can be applied with consistency in all boroughs.
As mentioned, this is happening alongside the Good Landlord Charter – which is GMCA’s ‘bold approach’ to drive up standards for renters across the region.
Landlords of more than half of rented properties in Greater Manchester have now signed up as supporters of the Charter, and as supporters, they have committed to going above and beyond legal minimums to improve the renting experience for hundreds of thousands of people.
“A safe place to call home is the cornerstone of a happy, healthy life,” explained Mayor Bev Craig. “But for years, people have felt trapped in poor-quality housing, and cash-strapped councils were unable to step in to help. I’m putting an end to that.
“We know there are plenty of good landlords in Greater Manchester, and many of them have already signed up to our Good Landlord Charter, but too many are just not good enough.
“That’s why we’re deploying a new generation of expert housing officers onto the streets of our towns and cities.”
Mayor Bev Craig declared that she ‘won’t stand by and let rogue landlords take advantage of people’.
She continued: “By empowering renters, working with responsible landlords, and using our powers to crack down on the bad ones, I will make sure everyone in Greater Manchester has the foundation for a good life.”
Daisy Jackson -
21st July 2023 
