The new modular housing concept has been created by Simon Woodroffe, the founder of YO! Company who is also responsible for hotel brand Yotel, and claims to offer “compact high quality living for buyers who are seeking maximum value and space for their money.”
Responsible, in part, for the popularisation of sushi to the masses, Yo! Sushi will be the latest investor in the growing Manchester residential market as Yo! Home.I had the pleasure of meeting David Laws at Matthews and Goodman yesterday for a fantastic presentation on Manchester’s property scene. David rolled out some rather exciting numbers… Whilst you can’t really miss the residential boom happening in Manchester at the moment, the scale of the development really is staggering: 3,000 new homes are currently under construction with approximately 8,000 either undeveloped (but with planning permission) or in the pre-application stages. Indeed the sudden increase starts to look like the north face of the Eiger, when plotted onto a graphWith employment market growth in Manchester up 9% and Manchester’s economy, overall, up 2.6% there will clearly be a need to provide more housing in the city centre. The apartments Yo! Home plan to build are pitched as small, high quality and innovative. As more jobs become available (particularly in the exponentially expanding media and technology sector), young professionals need housing that allows them to work, live and play in the city.Could there be an oversupply? Quite possibly. The developers, however, are fixed on the cavalier idea “build it and they will come”. They all want a piece of the Manchester pie and who can blame them? As Disraeli said (ironically a rather long time ago) “Certainly Manchester is the most wonderful city of modern times”.
