UK Cities: A Mixed-Use Perspective
Across the regional markets, the interplay between demand, viability and structural change is defining the next wave of urban growth. Living sectors have diversified significantly, with Build to Rent and Purpose-Built Student Accommodation now central to city-centre delivery, supported by long-term institutional capital and strong tenant demand. Meanwhile, commercial markets are recalibrating; offices are experiencing a pronounced flight to quality amid new limited supply, and retail continues to evolve through placemaking, experience and diversification.
Through a series of articles and city profiles, we explore where momentum is building, where challenges are emerging, and what these shifts mean for long-term decision making. We invite you to explore the findings and consider what comes next for the future of mixed-use development in the UK.
Cities across the UK are entering a new phase of transformation. After two decades of evolving regeneration cycles, shifting economic dynamics and changing patterns of urban living, the relationship between residential, commercial and leisure use has never been more interconnected, or more critical to understand. UK Cities: A Mixed-Use Perspective brings together Savills cross-sector insights to highlight how these forces are reshaping the places and spaces where people live, work and study.
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CONTENTS
01
The evolving dynamics of urban regeneration in UK regional cities
Explore how shifting living, commercial and leisure trends are reshaping UK city-centre regeneration, with insights into the forces driving the next wave of mixed-use growth.
03
Today’s urban occupier: what’s driving office demand, retail change and city-centre living?
Discover the behaviours of modern urban occupiers, including the demand for quality space and the evolving dynamics influencing how mixed-use environments are designed and used.
02
Which sectors are delivering? A comparative look at returns and viability
Learn which sectors are outperforming, how returns vary across cities, and why viability pressures are increasingly defining development prospects in today’s market.
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05
Understanding the growth trajectories of the UK’s Next Six cities
Examine the growth patterns of the UK's Next Six cities, comparing delivery, resilience and sector performance to show where opportunities – and limitations – are emerging beyond the Big Six.
04
City profiles
Explore our insight-led profiles of the Big Six in the UK, offering a comparative view of each major city’s economic drivers, demographic trends and real estate performance.
RESEARCH
Sophie Rosier
Head of London Mixed Use Co-Lead of Savills Mixed Use Sector Group
Jonathan Lambert
Director, Development Co-Lead of Savills Mixed Use Sector Group
Paul Wellman
Associate Director, Residential Research
Emily Williams
Director, Residential Research
Simon Preece
Director, Commercial Research
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Tom Whittington
Over the past two decades, UK urban regeneration has undergone a profound transformation.
The publication of The Urban Task Force’s ‘Towards an Urban Renaissance’ report in 1999 marked a turning point in reshaping how cities thought about density, mixed-use development and the role of city-centre living, following decades of urban decline. Today, the UK’s city centres are desirable places to live with constraints on affordability and viability of new delivery limiting their growth.
A new cycle of urban growth
In the decade leading up to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the Big Six regional cities outside London – Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh – experienced a surge in city centre development with the cycle dominated by private sale housing, which accounted for half of overall delivery.
The GFC brought this momentum to an abrupt halt with completions falling sharply between 2011 and 2014, reflecting both tighter credit availability and a loss of confidence in speculative urban development. Nonetheless, this period set the stage for a more diverse and resilient model of urban regeneration in the decade that followed.
Diversifying the delivery model
Most notably, the growth of the institutional residential sector has reshaped the delivery landscape. Build to Rent (BTR) has overtaken private sale as the leading driver of city-centre housing delivery in many markets. Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) continues its trajectory of growth, whilst Co-Living has emerged as a new asset class – essentially institutional BTR studios. This shift reflects both demand fundamentals and capital market realities. Institutional investors have brought patient capital, long-time income horizons and a growing appetite for placemaking-led regeneration. This supports government policies around “brownfield first” that prioritises urban intensification and mixed-use destinations. For cities that have historically underperformed in terms of economic output relative to their European peers, as shown by previous work by the Centre for Cities, there is clear recognition that mixed-use city centres drive economic performance and ultimately make them more desirable places to live, work and socialise.
New build delivery (sq ft) in city centres
Source: Savills, HM Land Registry, MHCLG, Costar Footnotes: City centre boundaries are a 2km radius for all cities apart from Manchester where we have used a 3km radius to account for its larger footprint and to include Salford Quays and other locations. Office = Grade A and new delivery (not taking into account demolitions) Note: Retail data only back to 2008.
The last 10 years have seen UK regional cities embrace a far broader mix of residential tenures and development partners.
Which sectors are delivering?
Residential and living sectors
Since 2019, the performance of city-centre living asset classes in the UK has diverged significantly. Structural demand shifts, evolving patterns of urban living, and a challenging development cost environment have reshaped the increasingly differentiated performance and viability profiles of Build to Rent (BTR), Co-living and Purpose-built Student Accommodation (PBSA).
Residential: stretched viability but strong income growth for rental markets
Across most major cities, residential assets – particularly rental-led products – have delivered the strongest income performance. This has been driven by pronounced supply-demand imbalances in many locations, where rental growth has materially outpaced wage inflation and broader economic indicators. In contrast, capital values across all sectors have been under pressure, reflecting rising interest rates and mortgage costs.
These dynamics have profound implications for future delivery. While residential rental growth has helped cushion total returns, persistent construction cost inflation continues to constrain viability for new supply. As a result, the pipeline is becoming increasingly polarised, with only the most resilient markets capable of supporting new development.
The private sales market has been characterised by a contraction in sales and new supply in recent years. Increasing build costs have met with a higher interest rate environment and a lack of a new build buyer support scheme which has eroded affordability. Achieved upper quartile new build values in 2025 across each city centre market range from around £300,000 in Birmingham, £340,000 in Leeds and Glasgow, around £375,000 in Manchester and up to £614,000 in Edinburgh. On a value per square foot basis, this amounted to £510 in Manchester, and beyond £650 in Edinburgh. However, in some markets, such as Bristol and Leeds, the supply of new build residential for private sale has dropped sharply compared to 10 years ago. Instead, these markets are seeing an increasing shift to more diversified supply, including rental products. Glasgow shows a relatively low capital value per square foot due to a lack of prime schemes delivered in the city core with recent supply limited to edge of centre, more affordable product.
A comparative look at returns and viability
PBSA: strong but diverging
Source: Savills using Zoopla
Comparative returns (BTR)
Source: Savills using Student Crowd
Comparative returns (PBSA)
Commercial sectors
The post-pandemic environment has brought about a marked recalibration across city-centre commercial markets, with both offices and retail experiencing sustained repricing. Negative capital returns have been common across both sectors as income growth has been insufficient to counteract the outward movement in yields and the increased cost of debt. Yet headline performance conceals a much more complex dynamic. A distinct two-speed market has emerged in which prime, high-quality assets continue to attract occupiers and investors, while older, secondary stock has struggled. This polarisation is reshaping occupational patterns, influencing development pipelines and redefining what constitutes a viable asset in core regional markets.
Offices: demand concentrated in best-inclass space
of expected 2026 take-up is forecast to be Grade A and prime
Over 60%
Source: MSCI
Comparative returns (Offices)
Retail: evolution driven by experience and placemaking
Retail has also experienced a difficult adjustment, although patterns vary considerably between core city-centre environments and secondary high streets. The latter continue to face persistent challenges, including subdued footfall, fragile demand from occupiers with greater vacancy levels, and ongoing competition from online and out-of-town formats. Ultimately, secondary city-centre retail locations have arisen from an over-supply of shopping uses, which in turn has provided opportunities to reposition with other uses in recent years. Across regional city centres, most high street retail and major shopping centres have remained fundamentally retail-focused but have evolved in response to changing consumer behaviour. Much repurposing continues, with increased food and beverage, leisure and entertainment operators now trading alongside traditional retail.
This transition – largely within the same use class – has been central to maintaining activity, footfall and supporting the broader placemaking role of retail in urban centres. In these locations, retail increasingly serves as a social, experiential anchor – as important for dwell time and evening-economy vitality as for transactional shopping. The nuance between comparative returns across the Big Six for retail is much narrower than other uses. However, Edinburgh fairs better with its tight prime supply and broader, resilient demand drivers and international tourism market. Manchester and, to a greater extent, Birmingham have seen the weakest total returns, with larger legacy retail block and shopping centre floorspace and much requiring repositioning.
Source: Savills using MSCI
Comparative returns (Retail)
UK regional cities are entering a new era of regeneration characterised by strong demand, but heavily constrained by viability.
Residential, particularly high-rise schemes, has been hit by a perfect storm of macro-economic pressures alongside regulatory headwinds (e.g. gateways, second stair cores) hitting viability of both PBSA and BTR. Whilst comparative returns have been strong since the pandemic with strong income growth, this is expected to be much more muted over the short to medium term. Offices and retail, meanwhile, have gone through a major structural repositioning, but now appear to be through the ‘other side’ with a flight to quality for both occupiers and investors alike. For offices, limited supply is pushing rents higher, meaning improved viability. Retail continues to be repositioned with more variety of uses and a greater placemaking role.
Outlook: regeneration enters its next phase
Comparative returns by asset class and location
Source: Savills using MSCI, Zoopla, Student Crowd
Income growth
Capital growth
Markets with the deepest mismatch between demand and available stock have recorded exceptional rental inflation.
Bristol for example recorded average annual rental income growth of 7.4% between 2019 and 2025. By contrast, Leeds, which has delivered substantial volumes of new housing across all tenures, recorded growth of 4.8% – still high and above wage growth making affordability for tenants tighter, but lower than other, more supply-constrained markets. Despite this, capital values have moved downward. Rising gilt yields, increased borrowing costs, and outward yield movement have depressed values, particularly where rental growth has been modest. Even in stronger rental markets, the uplift in net operating income has not fully offset the impact of higher yields pushing out by around 100 basis points since the pandemic. The result is a development environment that remains challenging. Construction costs stay elevated, with materials inflation, labour shortages and contractor pricing all contributing to persistently high build costs. Although income resilience has protected total returns better than in many commercial asset classes, viability is still constrained. With international migration levels forecast to fall drastically – a key source of rental demand – future rental growth is expected to be more muted in line with income growth, further exacerbating the viability conundrum.
Source: HM Land Registry, MHCLG
The PBSA sector has enjoyed sustained structural demand growth driven by rising student numbers, particularly from international markets, who have a greater propensity to choose higher-value PBSA. Strong occupancy, high pre-letting levels and a relatively stable performance track record have underpinned its reputation as one of the UK’s most defensive operational real estate sectors. However, the landscape is becoming more nuanced. Student numbers are still rising, but international growth has moderated and affordability ceilings are increasingly being tested. These constraints have begun to limit rental growth in several cities, particularly as PBSA developers and operators face rising competition from the mainstream private rented sector and, increasingly, from BTR which can offer similar, high-quality options. This is especially true in Leeds, where substantial BTR delivery has attracted high student occupancy. With increased regulation through the Renters’ Rights Act and potential restructuring of the market, this could lead to greater capacity for institutional investment.
At the same time, viability pressures are intensifying. Unite Students, one of the UK’s largest providers of student accommodation, recently indicated that new PBSA schemes typically require rents of around £230 per week to be financially deliverable. While this is achievable in some high-value university cities, others remain far more challenging. In Leeds, just 60% of private studios reach this threshold, highlighting widening disparity in development feasibility. This divergence underscores a key trend: PBSA viability is increasingly location specific. Cities with strong demand, limited supply and higher student willingness-to-pay can still support meaningful pipeline growth, while affordability-constrained markets with softening rental growth face barriers to new delivery despite high occupancy levels.
Regional offices have undergone one of the most significant structural shifts of any commercial segment. Early pandemic uncertainty around hybrid working led many occupiers to reconsider their requirements, contributing to a rise in vacancy across older, less efficient buildings. However, as workplace strategies have matured, the market has become increasingly polarised. Prime demand has shown persistent strength, with occupiers prioritising modern, highly sustainable buildings in central, well-connected locations. These buildings play a critical role in talent attraction, employee wellbeing and corporate ESG commitments. This demand concentration is occurring in parallel with an exceptionally thin development pipeline. Only Manchester and Leeds currently have new schemes under construction and due to complete after 2026. As a result, supply remains constrained at precisely the point when occupiers are most focused on securing high-quality space. This scarcity has contributed to substantial rental growth, with prime headline rents rising by an average of 30% over the past five years. Should this trajectory continue, prime rents in the strongest locations will soon approach the £60 per sq ft threshold many developers view as necessary to re-establish viability. Reaching this level would signal a meaningful inflection point and propel the next phase of the regional office development cycle.
Private sale delivery as % of total floorspace (2000-07)
49%
BTR delivery as % of total floorspace (2023-2025)
35%
Today’s urban occupier:
Offices: occupier shift and flight to quality
15-minute cities, footfall and ‘dwell time’ have become buzzwords in recent years – all trying to capture what makes cities thrive: people. The glue between homes, offices and hotels is the ground floor activation – shops, bars, restaurants and cafes that bring places to life. Major shopping centres built over 10 years ago simply wouldn’t be built in the same way going forward – largely single-use, apart from some obligatory food and beverage (F&B). Demand from retail occupiers and customers means fewer shops are needed. The large anchor tenants have also largely disappeared. In their place are truly mixed-use schemes with homes of various tenures, alongside other commercial uses such as offices, hotels and leisure. Whilst the premier shopping districts such as Cabot Circus in Bristol, the Arndale in Manchester or the Bullring in Birmingham do not need overhauling, the secondary centres do.
What’s driving office demand, retail change and city-centre living?
Retail and leisure: part of the bigger picture
Since 2021, 62% of occupiers relocating in the same city have increased their footprints. For those relocating in 2025, the figure was 86%.
Office occupational activity across the Big Six has displayed robust performance in light of recent challenges associated with the pandemic and weak economic growth. Encouragingly, a growing share of occupiers are now expanding their footprint rather than consolidating.
This trend reflects workplace strategies to improve talent attraction and retention by providing best-in-class working environments. This flight to quality means prime and Grade A vacancy rates are at record lows – averaging between 2% and 3% across the Big Six markets – and far lower than the 11% seen across the rest of the office sector. In a market defined by constrained supply and elevated fitout costs, location is more critical than ever. Occupiers in a post-pandemic world remain firmly focused on core, amenity-rich environments, reinforcing the widening performance gap between prime and non-core assets.
Professional services remain the most expansionary sector and a critical driver of regional demand. Professional services firms accounted for 25% of take-up across the Big Six markets, double the proportion across 2015 to 2019. Technology, media and telecommunications and insurance and financial services accounted for 16% and 13% of office take-up respectively. Law firms in particular have expanded in recent years, drawing on strong talent pools supplemented by inward migration from London. Manchester leads the way, with around 28,000 jobs across its wider city centre in high-value professional service type roles. This is expected to increase with a further 5,000 forecast over the next decade – nearly as many as Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow combined.
5.3m sq ft
Active requirements across the Big Six markets, up 56% on the same time last year
86%
of occupiers relocating in the same city in 2025 increased their footprint
What is the primary decision-making factor in an office relocation? (Ranked in order of importance from 1-7)
Source: Savills (regional office agent survey Q1 2026)
That includes the likes of Galleries in Broadmead, Bristol and Martineau Galleries in Birmingham. All are currently shopping centres – soon to be repurposed into major mixed-use regeneration schemes. Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, the prime shopping centre in the city, is also set to be overhauled with focus on mixed-use to further its appeal in competition with the nearby thriving high street. Part of the diversification story of retail is the increase in F&B. Across Manchester, the amount of F&B and leisure uses have increased by 80% over the last 10 years – that’s an extra 1m sq ft devoted to these units compared to 2015. Manchester is the strongest performer, aided by the extra population residing in the city centre due to wider development – the average across the wider Big Six over the same period is around 50%.
Around 80% of Manchester’s 1m sq ft of extra F&B is from repositioning from retail whilst the remaining is new mixed-use development off the main retail pitches. The development industry is now more cognisant of what goes in on the ground floor of new build development, whether that’s housing or offices, and particularly where institutional capital is holding an asset over a long period. That’s because the ground floor uses can act to draw the target market, whether that’s affluent young professionals, international students, or high-value tech companies, which in turn maximise values across the wider development.
2.7m sq ft
of retail space has been built across the Big Six in the last 10 years
1m sq ft
of F&B and leisure space has been built in Manchester in the last 10 years
Office vacancy rates (average of the Big Six)
2%
3%
11%
Prime
Grade A
All other
Source: Savills
Source: Experian Census, Oxford Economics
Household incomes
Age of household
Household composition
Property type
Source: Experian, HM Land Registry
Residential: young, single and affluent
Across key regional city centres in England, new residential development is serving a very different part of the market than that moving to suburban greenfield developments. Within the 2km urban core, residents are young, predominantly single and are typically higher income households. These centrally-located markets remain strongly aligned with the demands of mobile, early career professionals who value proximity to employment centres, nightlife, amenities and public transport. High concentrations of commercial activity and job opportunities reinforce the draw of dense, amenity-rich neighbourhoods. Movers into new build homes in these inner zones broadly mirror the existing profile, though with slightly lower household incomes, particularly for private renters. This suggests an affordability threshold increasingly shaping who can access city centre living. New entrants – students, recent graduates and young professionals – are effectively using the rental market as a gateway to city-centre life, even as cost pressures rise. As a result of these affordability pressures, Co-living is emerging as a as a new asset class – still limited in operational stock but with a growing pipeline – that provides city-centre living at a more attainable price point, catering to highly urban, flexible, convenience-driven young renters. In contrast, households moving into suburban areas within 3–5km of the city centre are typically older, more likely to be families, and with lower household incomes. This difference in demographic profile underlines the importance of city-centre delivery to meeting housing delivery targets. Serving a very distinct part of the market to suburban development, delivering these sites creates higher potential for absorption of new homes across different price points, demographics and tenures.
Which markets will see the largest growth in high-value professional service jobs?
Explore regional mixed-use insights
Dive deeper into the dynamics shaping each of the UK’s Big Six cities. These profiles bring together a consistent set of insights across residential, commercial and mixed-use development to reveal how each market is evolving, where performance is strongest, and how local drivers are influencing investment and delivery. From Manchester’s scale and momentum to Edinburgh’s supply constraints, each city tells a distinct story. Together, they highlight the interplay between economic growth, demographic trends and real estate fundamentals, offering a clear, comparative view of opportunity and risk across the UK’s leading regional markets. Use the map below to explore the Big Six.
EDINBURGH
GLASGOW
BIRMINGHAM
BRISTOL
MANCHESTER
LEEDS
A comparative view of the UK's Big Six
Explore the Next Six cities
Data clarifications
Over the past two decades, Manchester has cemented its position at the forefront of the UK’s urban regeneration story.
This growth is also been supported by the Combined Authority with their Good Growth Fund. This is a circa £2bn funding pot with money from GMCA’s integrated settlement, investment from the Government and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, and borrowing to deliver growth across GM. The first round of projects have already been announced with office and BTR schemes across GM benefiting from this patient equity capital. The model is being admired by other combined authorities across the UK who are expected to follow suit with their own
Adam Mirley
Head of Development
Much of the recent development activity has concentrated on the fringe areas around the city centre. Here, former industrial sites and surface car parks have been transformed into high-density neighbourhoods, with new high-rise towers reshaping the skyline. The acceleration that followed the BBC’s relocation to Media City in 2011, combined with Manchester’s positive, pro-planning environment through the last cycle, which helped the city return to pre-GFC delivery levels far sooner than most regional peers. Over the past decade, approximately 30,000 new homes have been delivered across both private sale and BTR. Local developers such as Renaker and Salboy have led the way with high-quality high rise developments appealing to overseas investors and UK institutions with L&G and Starlight recently acquiring schemes from Renaker. Major long-term masterplans – including FEC at the recently announced New Town, Victoria North and Landsec at Mayfield – are now delivering large-scale regeneration that will effectively extend the city centre and support the next phase of growth with prime residential values now between £500 and £600 per square foot, depending on location. This is also leading to new concepts including branded residences such as the W Residences in St Micheals and Nobu in Phase 2 of Viadux setting new benchmarks for value in the city and attracting new brands to consider the cities pipeline.
13,000
In 2024, 13,000 people relocated from London to Manchester
Surpassing the 11,800 making the reverse journey
11,800
Development delivery by use class
Comparative returns by use class
Delivered supply and value movements (2km radius from city centre)
The longstanding debate around the country’s “second city” has largely fallen away; delivery rates, investment volumes and the scale of ambition now place Manchester in a category of its own. A strong and distinctive city brand – shaped by culture, sport, innovation and the ubiquitous worker bee – has been matched by consistent strategic leadership from both Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester mayoral office. Together, these factors have underpinned sustained international investor confidence. That confidence is rooted in robust fundamentals. Manchester’s labour market has expanded rapidly, supported by its universities, a thriving knowledge economy and strong graduate retention rates – over half of Manchester’s students stay on in the city after their studies for work. Its population has continued to grow strongly too. In 2024, 13,000 people relocated from London to Manchester, surpassing the 11,800 making the reverse journey. This increasingly positive net inflow reflects both the city’s growing appeal and its relative housing affordability. As in many successful urban economies, real estate performance and economic growth reinforce one another: employment growth drives demand for offices, retail and hotels, which in turn strengthens the case for continued residential development.
Source: Savills, HM Land Registry, MHCLG, Costar
Manchester
RETURN TO MAP
James Evans
Head of Office, Manchester
Birmingham’s scale, regional influence and long-term development pipeline ensure it remains central to the UK’s urban growth story.
With major infrastructure, an expanding commercial core and multiple regeneration project such as Lendlease’s Smithfield progressing simultaneously, Birmingham is well positioned for the next phase of urban growth.
Michael Maguire
Development
Rising headline rents illustrate the scale of this transformation. At Paradise Three Chamberlain Square the rent achieved has now reached £52 per sq. ft. Professional services have led the market in 2025, securing 282,000 sq. ft. across 28 deals – the sector’s strongest year since 2008. Residential delivery has accelerated over the past decade, with BTR providers playing an increasingly important role in diversifying supply. Schemes across the city centre and Jewellery Quarter have broadened the appeal of urban living, complementing Birmingham’s strong university presence and growing young professional population. Challenges with development viability have caused urban land values to fall nationally, but in Birmingham, the market has been somewhat more robust. This suggests that demand in Birmingham remains strong, despite urban residential viability becoming increasingly difficult due to rising build costs. Confidence can also be drawn from the large pipeline of development coming forward in the city. Housing delivery has increased markedly in the last two years, with 4,454 net additional homes delivered in Birmingham in the 12 months to March 2025, roughly in line with the new standard method housing need.
282,000
sq ft secured across 28 deals by professional services in 2025
net additional homes delivered in Birmingham in the 12 months to March 2025
4,454
The arrival of High Speed 2 (HS2) at Curzon Street represents one of the most transformative infrastructure-led regeneration opportunities in the country. Even ahead of delivery (with trains not expected to be running until the 2030’s), HS2 has acted as a catalyst for development in Eastside and Digbeth. The latter – once a largely industrial area – is now emerging as a vibrant creative and media hub, with new residential neighbourhoods, studios, public realm improvements and mixed-use schemes reshaping perceptions of the district. Birmingham’s office market has also undergone a significant evolution. Major Grade A schemes around Paradise, Snow Hill and Arena Central have elevated the city’s commercial offer, attracting a broader mix of professional, tech and government occupiers. These new office developments sit alongside ongoing investment in cultural assets and public spaces, including the successful reinvention of the surrounding area following the opening of the Library of Birmingham. Over the past decade, Birmingham has attracted a growing number of major office occupiers, including HSBC, Goldman Sachs and the BBC. This momentum has been underpinned by a significant upgrade in the city’s prime office offering, with landmark schemes such as Paradise, Snowhill, 103 Colmore Row and Arena Central delivering high-quality Grade A space.
Birmingham continues to advance its position as one of the UK’s most significant regional economic centres, underpinned by large-scale regeneration, demographic growth and increasing institutional interest.
Birmingham
Victoria Burgin
Head of Office, Birmingham
The next phase of growth will be anchored by the transformation of Temple Quarter and city centre regeneration areas such as Broadmead. Both are key areas of the city centre which can deliver significant scale and change across both residential and commercial sectors. Other parts of the city centre are also seeking to pivot from predominantly industrial use to mixed use areas to help deliver the housing that is much needed in these urban areas. These major regeneration programmes will effectively extend the city centre eastwards and, for those more central locations, move away from areas which are dominated by a single use (i.e. retail or office). This is critical for a city that has greater challenges in expanding upwards than the manner seen in Manchester or Birmingham. Improved connectivity, new residential neighbourhoods, and a strengthened commercial core position Temple Quarter as the most significant urban expansion opportunity Bristol has had in a generation. This mixed-use scheme will be anchored by the University of Bristol’s new campus, alongside PBSA with the wider regeneration area expected to deliver around 10,000 homes and 22,000 jobs.
1.4m
sq ft of office space has been delivered over the past decade
homes delivered through private sale and BTR combined
3,000
Its mature knowledge economy, distinctive cultural identity and high quality of life have long supported strong market fundamentals. Yet, unlike some of the UK’s more vertically-expansive regional cities, Bristol’s tightly bounded geography and heritage assets have resulted in a more supply-constrained urban landscape – particularly for residential development. Over the past decade, private sale housing delivery has remained comparatively low relative to demand (and peer cities), reflecting both site scarcity and the complexity of unlocking centrally-located opportunities. This persistent imbalance between supply and need has underpinned values. Within the sample area (2km radius from the city centre), private sale and BTR have combined to deliver around 3,000 homes, PBSA has delivered over 5,000 beds over the past 10 years. Values in the sector have also risen sharply, with average weekly rents now around £375, up 80% since 2019 – reflecting both undersupply and the growing student population in demand of good quality stock. The commercial market demonstrates similarly robust fundamentals. Around 1.4 million sq ft of office space has been delivered over the past decade, with prime rents now achieving approximately £52 per sq ft. Demand continues to be led by Bristol’s thriving tech, aerospace and professional services sectors, supported by a deep pool of graduate talent.
Bristol has continued to strengthen its reputation as one of the UK’s most desirable and dynamic regional cities.
Director, Development
Bristol
Paddy Hales
Head of Office, Bristol
Leeds’ commercial market has also performed well. Office development around the city centre, Wellington Place and the wider West End has strengthened the city’s credentials as a business hub, attracting tech, financial and professional services occupiers. Retail has also benefitted from high-quality additions such as Trinity Leeds and Victoria Gate, consolidating the city’s role as a regional shopping destination. Looking ahead, the biggest strategic opportunity lies in the South Bank and areas to the south of the city centre. These vast regeneration zones – among the largest in Europe – have the potential to effectively double the size of Leeds city centre. While the cancellation of HS2 removes a catalyst that might have accelerated delivery, the scale, location and long-term investor interest in this area remain compelling.
7%
value growth for private studio rents since 2019
BTR homes have been delivered in the past 10 years
5,000
Residential delivery has been particularly strong. Nearly 5,000 BTR homes have been delivered in the past 10 years – one of the highest totals of any UK city outside London. This substantial growth in supply has created a more diversified rental offer but has also moderated rental values, which currently average around £1,375 per month, with value growth of 33% since 2019. Prime values residential values in the city are £425-£475 per sq.ft. The PBSA sector has expanded even more dramatically, delivering over 10,000 beds in the same period. With current median private studio rents of £249 per week and value growth of 7% since 2019, the sector demonstrates how high levels of delivery can soften the upward pressure on rents.
Leeds has emerged as one of the UK’s most active and rapidly evolving urban markets, supported by strong economic fundamentals and a development community capable of delivering at scale. Over the past decade, the city has established itself as a national leader in both BTR and PBSA delivery, reshaping the urban core and reinforcing Leeds’ role as a major regional hub for employment, education and culture.
Leeds
Simon Lister
Head of Office, Leeds
Commercial development has continued to reinforce Glasgow’s economy, with around 2.5 million sq ft of office space delivered over the past decade, playing an important role in catalysing mixed-use development and regeneration. Landmark schemes such as the 470,000 sq ft Barclays Campus at Tradeston, alongside the 75,000 sq ft HQ for the Student Loans Company and the adjacent 324 unit Solasta BTR development, have successfully expanded the traditional core to the south bank of the River Clyde. More recently Grade A delivery has been focused on the refurb market reflecting escalating construction costs and viability pressures. The hotel sector has also expanded with more than 4,000 new rooms delivered over the past decade – even outperforming Edinburgh. Legislative uncertainty surrounding rent controls in Scotland has been a significant deterrent to institutional investment into the BTR sector . Now BTR is confirmed as exempt, confidence is rebuilding and Glasgow is well positioned to benefit, given its scale, diverse economy and university driven demand from which to grow. Glasgow’s status as a major UK University city with a world-class academic research base and talent pool is generating sustained demand not only for housing but also for innovation workspace and amenity. Creative partnerships and funding solutions will be essential for Glasgow to fully realise its ambition to grow its city-centre population and meet the demand spinning out of its academic institutions.
2.5m
student beds have been delivered by the city over the past decade
6,000
As Scotland’s largest city, it sits at the heart of a metropolitan region of approximately 1.85 million people, characterised by a large commuting workforce, but a relatively limited city-centre residential population. Over the past decade, the city has taken deliberate steps to rebalance this with policies aimed at increasing city-centre living and support a more mixed-use core. Yet residential delivery has remained relatively modest, with fewer than 3,000 new homes completed in the last 10 years, highlighting the gap between ambition and actual delivery. The imbalance is most pronounced in the private for sale sector, with a clear absence of development in the prime city core and activity skewed towards more affordable, edge-of-centre locations with lower values. For prime sites in the city centre we would expect much higher values, although this is largely untested in recent years. In contrast, Glasgow’s PBSA market has seen far more substantial expansion. The city has delivered approximately 6,000 student beds over the past decade, driven by its large universities and growth in its student population – both overseas and domestic. With PBSA rents now averaging around £295 per week and having grown by 79% since 2019, the sector stands out as one of Glasgow’s strongest performers. This exceptional rental growth reflects the enduring quality of the city’s higher education institutions, deep demand and limited competition from traditional residential stock in the city centre.
Glasgow has long been one of the UK’s strongest commercial centres.
Alex France
Associate Director, Development
Glasgow
David Cobban
Head of Office, Glasgow
128%
rental growth within the PBSA sector since 2019
new homes have been delivered in total
2,700
Housing delivery over the past decade has been comparatively modest, with around 2,700 new homes in total – and limited Build to Rent activity. Edinburgh’s UNESCO-protected skyline and conservation areas restrict opportunities for high-density development, preventing the kind of vertical expansion seen in cities such as Manchester or Birmingham. As a result, pressure on both rental and sale markets remains acute, with supply unable to keep pace with sustained demand from students, professionals and international buyers. In contrast, the PBSA sector has been highly active, adding around 5,700 new beds over the past decade. Strong student inflows – both domestic and international – have driven demand, and the PBSA sector has seen substantial rental growth, with rents up 128% since 2019. PBSA has therefore become one of the few asset classes able to respond at scale to Edinburgh’s chronic undersupply of centrally-located accommodation.
Edinburgh’s commercial and retail markets have also performed well. The opening of the St James Quarter has redefined the city’s retail offer, reinforcing its role as a major shopping and leisure destination. Offices remain underpinned by demand from financial services, tech, government and professional services, supported by a highly-skilled workforce and the city’s global brand. However, scarcity of land makes the delivery of new Grade A office development challenging in prime locations. With the historic city centre unable to accommodate large-scale residential growth, the next phase of development is shifting toward Leith and the northern waterfront. The tram extension has strengthened connectivity, unlocking new opportunities for higher density residential-led mixed-use and cultural development in these locations. This expansion will be critical to accommodating future population growth in one of the UK’s most supply constrained cities, while preserving Edinburgh’s unique heritage.
Edinburgh remains one of the UK’s most distinctive and globally-recognisable urban markets, underpinned by its international cultural appeal, world-class universities and exceptionally strong visitor economy. These factors, combined with a tightly constrained historic core, drive sustained demand, but arguably add constraints and limit supply, placing persistent upward pressure on values.
Edinburgh
Alastair Wood
Head of Office, Edinburgh
Competitor regional cities – the “Next Six”
Outside London, we traditionally talk about the Big Six regional cities. However, growing attention is now turning to the Next Six – Sheffield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Reading, Newcastle and Southampton – to understand how their development markets compare and how they have evolved over time. These cities have broadly followed the same cyclical patterns as the Big Six, albeit at a materially smaller scale. Looking back to the year 2000, combined delivery across the Next Six averaged around 40% of their larger counterparts. This relationship strengthened during the 2011–2018 recovery period, when renewed confidence, improved residential absorption and a strong pipeline of student accommodation resulted in delivery rates rising to 52% of Big Six output. More recently, however, the gap has widened significantly. Between 2020 and 2025, the Next Six delivered just a quarter of the Big Six output, highlighting the extent to which challenging market fundamentals now favour the bigger markets. Each of the Next Six cities also display distinct characteristics. Liverpool stands out for sustained levels of private-sale apartment development in its urban core.
Major regeneration – particularly the transformation of the city centre and the success of Liverpool One – has reshaped perceptions and created a more attractive environment for city-centre living. This has supported both for-sale development and a meaningful amount of Build to Rent delivery close to its city centre and along the River Mersey and former dock areas. In several of the Next Six cities, PBSA has been the most consistently viable asset class. Sheffield, in particular, has seen extensive PBSA delivery driven by continued university growth and increasing international demand. In several secondary regional cities, PBSA has offered stronger and more predictable viability than offices or private-sale residential, reflecting lower achievable Grade A office rents, smaller employment hubs and more limited investor appetite for speculative commercial development. The recent divergence between the Big Six and the Next Six therefore reflects both structural and cyclical forces. While smaller cities delivered strongly during periods of stability, the current higher-cost, higher-risk environment has amplified the advantages of the largest regional markets. As a result, recent development activity has become increasingly concentrated in those cities with the deepest demand and most established investor bases.
Source: Source: Savills, HM Land Registry, MHCLG, Costar,
Sq ft delivered per year (average per city)
Total sq ft delivered over the past 10 years (2016-25)
Total delivery over the past 10 years (2016-25)
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Geographies: For deliveries, all cities use a 2km radius, apart from Manchester (3km) due to the larger city centre and to take account of growth across wider Salford area including Salford Quays. Values and value growth uses a 2km radius for all cities.
