Along Deansgate and the civic quarter, Manchester’s most sought-after addresses are taking shape, and the city’s first branded residences are being built on them.
In the world’s leading cities, the best addresses are famous in their own right, and branded residences sit on them. Manchester’s residential market is well established. Its prime city centre market is younger, and its best addresses are forming now along Deansgate and in the civic quarter around Albert Square and St Peter’s Square. The city’s first branded residences are being built there, and they show what buyers in an emerging prime market are paying for.
Why people pay more for branded residences
In a branded residence, the brand sets the standard for design, specification and service, and keeps it after residents move in. Many city centre apartment towers may seem to have similar amenities and some level of concierge service. A branded residence works to a far higher level of interior design, specification and experience, backed by an internationally recognised name.
Savills’ Branded Residences Europe 2026 report finds that branded residences in Europe command an average price premium of 38% over comparable non-branded residences, up from 29% a year earlier. Its global report puts the worldwide figure at 33%, and its agent research finds that ‘what residents are truly buying into is the service ethos of the brand.’
Why Manchester, and why now
Manchester has grown over the past twenty years into an established housing market, driven by regeneration and by a global reputation for culture, music, sport, education and, increasingly, cuisine. The next ten years will see that market mature and a prime residential market emerge at its centre, and the signs are already there.
Downing Street’s No 10 North opened in July 2026 in Heron House on Albert Square, beside the Town Hall. In November 2027, heads of government will meet at Manchester Central for the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Announcing the summit, Bev Craig, the mayor, said Greater Manchester ‘is being recognised as an emerging star of the global economy’.
Savills identifies three qualities shared by the markets that attract the wealthiest buyers: international connectivity, security for capital, and cultural and civic amenity. Manchester’s prime core, from St Michael’s on Jackson’s Row along Deansgate to Great Bridgewater Street, offers two of them in one walkable area: Deansgate station, the Metrolink, Manchester Central, the Town Hall, Central Library and the Bridgewater Hall stand a few minutes apart.
The city’s first branded residences
Manchester’s first branded residences launched in 2023 and sold out within months.
Simon Ismail, co-founder of Salboy, said: ‘That speed tells you how much appetite there was for a branded address in Manchester, and how little there was to buy. A lot of people who wanted in found it had gone by the time they looked.’
W Residences Manchester opens next year at St Michael’s, developed by Salboy with Relentless Developments. The residences share a 43-storey tower with the city’s first W hotel. From day one, residents will arrive through their own entrance to a private Residents’ Lobby, with W’s Whatever/Whenever concierge on hand around the clock and a dedicated Marriott team running the building. For residents, the city’s first five-star destination will also be home.
What comes next for Manchester’s prime market
Manchester’s most anticipated branded residences are next. Nobu Residences Manchester will share one address on Great Bridgewater Street with Nobu Hotel Manchester and Nobu Manchester, the restaurant and bar set within the Grade II listed Viadux arches. The site stands at the southern end of the Deansgate core, beside Deansgate station and a short walk from Manchester Central. Planned as Manchester’s tallest tower, it is designed by SimpsonHaugh, and Bowler James Brindley is designing the interiors. Residents will have a spa with a pool, a gym, event spaces, a landscaped podium garden and a 24-hour concierge.
Knight Frank’s Residence Report 2025/26 finds that ‘restaurants and bars are no longer afterthoughts, they define brand identity and anchor communities’. Nobu ‘started life as a single New York restaurant and now encompasses more than 50 restaurants, 41 hotels and 18 residences, with a dozen more in the pipeline’. Other restaurateurs, the report says, are ‘following in the footsteps of Nobu’.
Join the Nobu Residences Manchester Waiting List
Sources: Savills, Branded Residences Europe 2026; Savills, Branded Residences 2025/26; Knight Frank, The Residence Report 2025/26; Cabinet Office, September 2026;
