Centenary House

Part of the Northern Powerhouse, Leeds is a major city with a population of 781,000. The city is the heart of Leeds City Region (LCR), a cluster of 10 local authorities with a combined population of 3 million.

Worth over GBP60 billion, the region’s economy is the largest outside London and accounts for 5% of the UK’s economic output. LCR’s population has grown 3.1% over the past five years with a further 2.5% growth forecast for the next five years.

Increasing demand has led to changes in the residential market. The region needs over 90,000 units delivered by 2021. However, only 60,000 residential units are currently in the pipeline for this period, creating a housing shortfall of 30,000.

Leeds will have the 7th fastest growing resident population in the UK up to 2020 and the city population is forecast to increase by 9.6% by 2033. Leeds has also seen the UK’s highest growth of private sector jobs at 6.1% in 2015, ahead of London at 4.4% and well above the national average of 2.5%.

Vacancy rates in the housing market have fallen from 5% in 2010 to just 2.5% in 2016 and are pushing prices upwards. JLL’s rental growth forecast suggests that Leeds is set to have one of the UK’s largest rental growth over the next five years at 22.2%. Simultaneously, with a projected house price growth of 21.6% between 2017 and 2021, JLL forecasts that the annual price growth in Leeds will surpass Manchester, Liverpool and other major UK cities by 2020.