Is It Still Viable To Invest In The City Centre?

City Centre still has the Best Fundamentals

The trend towards moving into the City Centre is here and it is here to stay. The Fundamentals are far better and it has the lifestyle most people want.

Himansu has just asked a question. It's actually a good question so I'll chuck it on the screen. Investing in City Centre is still viable you know I keep hearing people moving out. I was having this conversation with a couple of guys and it's interesting because a lot of people are saying you know that basically as many people are moving in as moving out.

I think anyone that says you know look anyone that says oh you know don't buy in the city centre because you know everyone's moving out. You know what I hate to say this but this is where yes there'll be some people that are moving out and yes there'll be some people that are moving in you know is it going to fundamentally change where oh no we don't want to live in the cities.

We don't want the fundamentals we don't want the closeness to transport we don't look like you know it's just not it's a ridiculous concept and you know what if you are doing that and you believe that you're an idiot.

I don't mean to call people idiots but the reality is that you know the facts don't wear out number one yes it sounds good putting people on the newspapers and saying oh they're moving you know they're upping the family and moving out. Yeah they're up in the family and moving out probably they were going to do that anyway. They'd already been thinking about it.

You know but you know what great if more people move out more families move out which they do anyway, then more single people you know will move in. And I mean that's what's happening make no mistake the trend towards moving into the cities is here and it's here to stay. The fundamentals are far better and that's the lifestyle a lot more people want. And let's face it people are getting married later they're having kids later so they're moving out in the suburbs later. 

So we can say and I love this happens every time we have some form of whatever it is whether it be you know financial crisis whether it be you know Covid whatever it is people will immediately go oh look you know nobody's going to need offices anymore we're going to work from home. Well you know what we did we did a poll with our staff and 80% of them were like get me back to the office please you know. They don't want to work from home. You know having some flexibility may be okay but you know.

So yes it will change fundamentally but it's not going to change that much and it's not going to make that much of a difference. So really good question Himansu.  I love all these knee jerk reaction comments that come out and they get common column inches but for the most part they never come true and they never come out you know. 

You're talking about London and Manchester in these big major cities that you know that are already structuring themselves to be cities of the future. That accounts for so much more than you know I mean I love the fact that people do this, but that is the media selling you know column inches and that's all it is there's very little in it.

If you're a family and you're sitting there going actually i think we're going to move out because we just have to spend three months you know sitting at home in a small apartment and actually want to get out yeah totally but you know what they're going to move out you're going to move out with your family great but somebody else is going to move into that property. The rent will adjust accordingly that's what the market does you know that's how it works okay.