The next decade looks rosy for South Coast cities, according to real estate sector growth report from CBRE

Published by

Peter Davison

Southampton. Image courtesy of https://www.pxfuel.com

A report looking at real estate prospects over the next decade has ranked South Coast Southampton, Brighton and Bournemouth in the top five for affordable housing, the leisure sector, and hotels.

Which City? Which Sector?, published by global real estate adviser CBRE, focuses on the 50 largest towns and cities outside of London and 12 core real estate sectors.

Southampton

The extensive survey found that, with the approval of the Solent Freeport, the Solent region has become the UK’s most important gateway to European and global markets and is expected to create over 15,000 direct jobs and a further 15,000 opportunities across the UK.

Southampton is expected to see a population rise of 3.7 per cent over the next decade, the fourth highest in the country and its three highest growth sectors over the next ten years include hotels, multi-family housing and self-storage.

Student population is becoming increasingly familiar and fonder of multi-family housing, and a growing demand pool for the sector.

Southampton is one of three cities in the top ten included in the research with an expected large increase in student-age population over the next ten years.

Southampton is also ranked as the second top growth city for affordable housing in the next decade, and scores highly across the majority of the metrics used in the research.

Domestic travel is forecast to increase 36 per cent by 2030. Southampton, along with Brighton and Glasgow, is one of the cities set to record the biggest rise in visitors, while hotel operators in the city are expected to see an increase of 67 per cent in international visitors, the biggest rise of all cities covered.

Brighton

Brighton is one of the UK’s most culturally diverse and cosmopolitan cities, well known for its strength in the creative industries, digital and technology sectors. It ranked in the top ten of more than half the sectors, reflecting its strong expected employment and disposable income growth.

The city benefits from a strong tourist economy, and independent retail offering and was ranked second by One Family as the happiest city to live and work in.

Core growth is anticipated in the leisure and food & beverage, senior living and multi-family housing real estate sectors.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth is well known as a popular side town and is closely linked with nearby Sandbanks, which has some of the highest-priced housing in the UK.

Bournemouth is also a popular commercial hub, benefiting from strong European transport links from its airport base.

Like Brighton, the town is expected to see high growth in both GDP and disposable income of 16.5 per cent and 17.6 per cent respectively.

Over the next ten years, Bournemouth’s core growth sectors include leisure and food & beverage, senior living and affordable housing.

James Brounger, head of CBRE’s Southampton office, said: “It is good news for the South Coast that the regional cities feature so highly.

"Southampton in particular has benefited hugely from the recent recovery of the maritime industry, especially the cruise industry with passenger numbers set to hit two million in 2023, a figure not seen for six years.

“Equally well known for its universities, Southampton has a student population of 46,000 and is one of the cities expected to see a large increase in student population over the next decade, fuelling the requirement for multi-family housing and self-storage."

Jen Siebrits, CBRE's head of UK research, said: “Our research has looked in detail at the prospects for a range of real estate sectors across the UK’s largest regional towns and cities.

"As well as GDP, employment and income growth, we considered demographic trends and property market data, such as supply pipeline, local universities, and housing affordability.

“From our findings, we have ranked individual locations based on their prospects for growth in each sector, cross-referencing the highest growth sectors alongside the top ten growth cities for each sector.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.