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Bidding war for flats in Manchester city centre

Tuesday, 21 February 2012 11:06 AM

The mortgage shortage and an influx of students and BBC staff are triggering bidding wars for flats in Manchester city centre.

The Manchester Evening News (MEN) reports that occupancy has now reached 96 per cent and competition is so fierce that flat-hunters are signing up to tenancies without even seeing their new homes.

The mortgage shortage is forcing more people to rent and the price of petrol has increased the popularity of city centre living. At the same time, the city's universities are attracting more foreign students and there has been an influx of staff to work at the BBC's new headquarters in Salford.

Henry Dhaliwal, director of Belvoir Lettings in Manchester, told MEN that the rent for one flat in Beetham Tower in Deansgate was pushed up from £1,250 to £1,550 following a bidding battle over the phone between one student from India and one in China. The Chinese student secured the deal after offering to pay two years in advance.

Thomas Bett of Key Properties said rents have risen by 30 per cent in the last 12 months. "We are seeing fierce competition. For certain properties, we have five or six people doing viewings for one place and they are effectively entering a bidding war.

"Especially in the summer months, people are taking properties without even viewing them. They are that desperate. They call from all over the world and just take them."

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