This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
Investors are finally starting to notice the fantastic living potential in the wonderful city of Derby, according to a leading property entrepreneur.
Alongside being home to the greatest football team in England, excellent nightlife and known affectionately as ‘Derbados,’ the city has exciting scope for property development. Taking my biased-hat off, room for development has also been spotted by Graham Bates, chief executive of Eddisons Residential.
Potential
Mr Bates will today forward his plans to develop empty land in the city into a number of high-quality apartments at the yearly Derby Property Summit, held at the home of football, the iPro Stadium.
This years summit is titled, ‘Midlands: The UK’s Engine Room’ and will see a number of delegates from the regeneration sector discuss issues for growth in the East Midlands. Joining Mr Bates on the panel will be Midlands HCA executive director Christine Addison and Compendium Living managing director Dace Bullock.
‘London values make it difficult to achieve decent rental returns, so the big players are now focusing on the regions, which includes not only prime locations such as Manchester but also secondary cities like Derby, where there is big rental demand,’ commented Bates.[1]
Rough Diamond
Bates believes that, ‘developing city living is one of the massive opportunities in Derby,’ and describes the city as, ‘a diamond in the rough, in that if you turn over a stone, you’re going to find a diamond.’ He went on to say that he is, ‘very excited about the city,’ as it brings, ‘some of the country’s best graduates in advanced engineering and has world-class employees.’[1]
‘These young people are in their 20’s-but where do they live? Many want city apartments, but there isn’t anything in Derby. That’s why I’m so excited about the city,’ he continued. ‘Derby is not the size of Manchester, so you can’t go totally crazy. But these kind of sites of perfect for 100-250 apartments.’[1]
Concluding, Bates said that the rental market as a whole is growing and believes it is not in peoples’ mindset, ‘to settle down so early. That is why renting suits them.’[1]
[1] http://m.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Big-players-turning-Derby-says-expert-ahead/story-26752148-detail/story.html
