Getting the property mix right

By Helen Thorne, solicitor, residential conveyancing, Slater + Gordon.

There are an increasing number of challenges that both new and established developments in city centres face, including changes in technology and in consumer needs and demands.

Developers need to keep up with these and stay ahead when it comes to planning their new developments and managing existing ones.

City centre accommodation has always been popular with students, especially with several schemes now available in attracting first time buyers to affordable housing.

To meet the needs of consumer tastes and spending patterns, retail developments must bow to the pressures of accommodating new and exciting food and beverage outlets and consistently strive to deliver an “on trend” mix of retailers.

For high street retailers, this means that they need to come up with new and innovative ways to attract consumers in order to tackle the issue of declining footfall whilst paying the higher rents that being in the city attract compared to emerging out-of-town developments.

Concerns have been expressed that massive developments such as Cuerden could further impact on footfall in Preston city centre.

So in an attempt to combat this, plans are underway to improve the attraction of the city through accommodation and leisure initiatives. We are still seeing an ever-growing expansion of city centres continuing to develop by creating new apartment sites, renovating and converting old buildings which increases the city’s living population.