In 2019, the last time that Building took an in-depth look at Manchester’s real estate market, analysts speculated that the city’s long residential boom could be cooling and that the commercial office could be the next growth market. A lot, you may have noticed, has changed since 2019.

Through three years of lingering pandemic and on-off lockdowns, that slowdown in residential construction never materialised, maintained by strong private rental demand. In the office market, by contrast, it has been a bewildering few years as employees, occupiers, landlords and developers adapted to the brave new world of home and hybrid working.