Why property investment in Manchester is the smart option
Modern cities are becoming technological hubs. They live and breathe technology. They are becoming ‘smart’. It makes them much more attractive places to live and work. In turn, this makes them more attractive for property investment. Manchester is at the forefront of this type of city development – not just in the UK, but in the world. Another great reason why property investors are snapping up Manchester property.
In this article, you’ll learn about Manchester’s CityVerve programme, and how technology will shape the future of transport and travel around Manchester.
What is CityVerve?
Manchester is a big city. Its population is growing. Its economy is thriving. As the city grows, the needs of its residents and visitors will become more complex. It is where CityVerve comes into the equation. The brightest minds are banging their heads together to create a smart city. One in which technology is used to deliver a better-connected city, allowing people to continue their daily lives more efficiently.
Imagine a fully engaged city
CityVerve and its projects aim to make all facets of Manchester fully engaged. While the projects under its remits include promoting new business, creating jobs, and producing better healthcare, transport, and safer streets, there is one thing that is at the centre of Manchester and the heart of CityVerve: Manchester’s people.
Real-world experts drive every piece of the puzzle. A team so in tune with the potential of technology to shape places that it blows your mind away. And when you combine the best brains with the best technology, the result should make Manchester an example for smart cities around the world.
Manchester will become a living city
If you look at most cities around the UK, they have been built as a mish-mash of, at best, loosely connected services and elements. Imagine if your brain didn’t talk to your legs. Or your breathing was disconnected from your blood circulation. That’s how most cities operate.
CityVerve treats the city of Manchester as a single living, breathing being. It’s layering technologies to join up the dots, making sure that independent systems talk to each other and inform each other. Systems, data and people will become connected on a grand scale: a city scale.
The platform to accomplish this will be scalable, and as more connections are made, the smarter the city will become. As the city grows, so will its intelligence and the opportunities for its people.
How will CityVerve shape Manchester?
Just as when you are investing in property, a strategy and plan are needed when developing a smart city. Systems must be put in place to collect data. That data must be interpreted. And it’s not good enough to collect data from a constricted and finite group.
Everyone must be involved: entrepreneurs, start-ups, big businesses, property developers and investors, service providers… everyone. By enabling this, CityVerve will build a smart city that delivers real and sustainable value to everyone who lives, works, plays and invests in Manchester.
A five-step process of creating a smart city
CityVerve has developed a five-step process to create the smart city in Manchester that could become the blueprint for smart cities worldwide:
1. A truly open platform
The city is seen as a living organism, and CityVerve’s platform of platforms creates integrated technology layers similar to the body’s central nervous system – all independent systems are connected, and informing the centre.
2. Identifying opportunities
Opportunities that allow the benefits, needs and challenges of Manchester’s citizens to be met are identified, with focus on four areas: Health and Social Care, Energy & Environment, Travel and Transport, and Culture and Public Realm.
3. Enabling the creation of community
Using technology to enrich the experience of Manchester for residents, businesses, and visitors, helping to create a real Manchester community.
4. Open innovation
For innovation to succeed, collaboration is essential. CityVerve actively encourages openness and participation by innovators and developers from all walks of life.
5. Evaluate
CityVerve evaluates all projects with the underlying question, “Does the theory translate into the real world?”
Helping Manchester move
A modern, economically vibrant city must be able to move. People and businesses must be able to travel around easily and quickly. Technology enables a city to help its citizens do so effortlessly.
Being able to commute to work and travel to areas of leisure is essential for residents. Thus, transport is one of the most important property fundamentals to examine when researching an area. To date, research has centred on the physical transport infrastructure and services offered. In the future, it’s likely that we’ll be analysing how a city’s technological fabric decongests transport routes and reduces air pollution.
Partners to CityVerve have been working hard to develop solutions that will improve travel and transport in and around the city, offering mobility choices for all. Technology will innovate:
- How transport services are paid for
- How travel options are discovered
- How people are guided around Manchester
Manchester’s transport system will be transported into the 21st century, becoming a real driver of economic growth. Scalability will provide sustainability. Bus and tram stops will become more than simply places to get on and off the transport. Revamped railway stations could boost property investment opportunity in Manchester.
The City Concierge
The City Concierge is a programme aimed at providing people with tailored travel information. Mapping data drills down to the ‘street furniture’ level, providing accuracy that is invaluable to all – especially those with mobility difficulties.
It will integrate with wearable technologies, providing a more integrated experience of Manchester as you move around.
Real-time information around the city
Sensors around the city will collect data and transmit details in real time to travellers. Traffic and pollution will be monitored, allowing people (and the city) to take action to redirect their journeys. Drivers will be warned in advance, and emergency services will benefit from improved performance and efficiency.
This integrated transport system, imagined by innovators and enabled by technological innovation, will work seamlessly with transport providers and people without them even knowing it. Buildings will become better connected to transport links, and places of interest will become more accessible.
Concept to reality – CityVerve and Manchester transport in action
When projects like these are first started, they are no more than diagrams and thoughts on the drawing board. These ideas and concepts are becoming a reality already. Futuristic transport solutions are becoming a part of the underlying (and often unseen) fabric of the transport system in this great northern city. And this is excellent news for property investment opportunities in and around Manchester.
Soon, we’ll be publishing an article that examines how CityVerve and innovation are redefining Manchester. And we’ll discuss the visible evidence that Manchester is evolving into a smart city that could become the envy of the world. In the meantime, contact one of the Gladfish team today on +44 207 923 6100 to find out about the incredible property investment opportunities in Manchester.
Live with passion,
Brett Alegre-Wood
