Economic Monitor
The Economic Monitor provides proxy indicators for the state of investment, attractiveness and development of the state of the local economy. These indicators focus on aircraft activity, tourism, house prices and the construction industry.
economic
MONITOR
AUGUST 2010
Passenger levels at airport and hotel residency both down
Passenger and aircraft movements at Manchester Airport rose again in June. While, both air transport movements and passenger numbers are still down on last year, these have experienced their lowest yearly decrease since June 2008.
Passenger numbers were down 0.5% annually and air transport movements down 3.8% annually in June. The recession appears to have had a lasting impact on both passenger numbers and air transport movements. From June 2008, passenger numbers fell by 13.8% and air transport movements fell by 19.7%.
Whilst other comparable airports have not seen as significant changes in passenger numbers and air transport as Manchester, Gatwick, Heathrow and Birmingham have still seen annual reductions in passenger numbers.
Hotel occupancy rates have seen a further small reduction the month, and are now slightly lower than a year ago. Both the city centre and Greater Manchester occupancy rates have decreased by 0.2% on the year.
PLEASE NOTE: Visit Manchester’s hotel occupancy figures are now provided by STR Global, and as such these figures do not match with those provided previously.
Download airport statistics as well as hotel occupancy data:
- Airport Activity – August 2010 (229kb)
- Hotel Occupancy Rates – August 2010 (123kb)
House price growth remains subdued
The average house price in Greater Manchester grew by 0.1% in June, according to the Land Registry. Annually, prices have shown an increase of 4.4% . Relative to the national growth rate, house prices in Greater Manchester have been subdued – over the past year, the average house price in England and Wales has risen by 8.4%.
Sales figures, also released by the Land Registry, show that in April 2010 sales in Greater Manchester fell by 7% – a higher decrease than the North West (-2.8% ) and national averages (-1.1% ). Over the year as well, sales figures have seen marginally lower growth in Greater Manchester than at national levels, growing by 25.4% compared to a 25.6% growth nationally.
On a more positive note, mortgage and landlord possession claims have decreased. Mortgage claims remained at 1,145 across Greater Manchester in the first quarter of 2010, down 30.4% on the year and showing a more significant reduction than across the North West (27.4% reduction) or England and Wales (22.9% reduction). However, landlord possession claims decreased in the second quarter of 2010 to 1,785 – a 7.3% quarterly decrease. This was a smaller decrease than the national average (10.0% ) as well as that experienced in other national comparator city regions (e.g. Birmingham had a 10.0% quarterly decrease).
Download the house price and sales, landlord and mortgage repossessions data for Greater Manchester:
- House Price Index – August 2010 (5566kb)
- Landlord and mortgage possession claims data – August 2010 (139kb)
City centre continues to grow
Figures provided by CityCo show that Manchester’s city centre shops are seeing a continued increase in both footfall and retail spend. Street cameras also picked up a general increase in footfall of 0.5% year-on-year to July 2010, in comparison to an average fall of 1.9% nationally. Turnover, reported by selected retail businesses, also showed an increase of 5.6% annually, compared to a fall in growth of 2.7% nationally, highlighting the increased performance of the city centre against the national trend.
Commercial property market shows faltering progress
Figures released by DTZ Research show that the commercial property sector is slowing down. There was no new office supply in Q2 2010, as availability reached over 3 million square feet in Manchester city centre – a growth of 26.4% this quarter alone, and a growth of over 53.0% annually.
Despite an annual growth in office take-up, the average level is still relatively low. This, combined with a fall in take-up this month of 7.2%, has led to the rising level of availability, and the reduction in new supply coming onto the market.
This change is not confined to Manchester. Birmingham, Bristol Edinburgh and Leeds have all experienced a fall in take-up this month. Edinburgh, Nottingham and Newcastle have experienced no new office supply in the past half-year due to depressed market conditions; Birmingham and Bristol have not experienced any new supply in the last three quarters; and Cardiff has had no new office supply for over a year.
Download commercial property data for Greater Manchester:
Return to the Manchester Monitor homepage.
Alternatively, access one of the following Monitors:
worklessness
MONITOR
business
MONITOR
opinion
MONITOR
For more information about the Business Monitor, contact Chris Pope or phone 0161 237 4024.
