IN Brief:
- Manchester’s next This City phase is built around a joint venture with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund targeting about 1,600 homes.
- The programme is based on council-owned brownfield sites, mixed tenure, and a minimum 20% affordable provision at Manchester Living Rent.
- Postal Street is the lead scheme, with 126 homes and ground-floor commercial space, while a wider seven-site pipeline is being assembled.
Manchester City Council is moving its next major housing phase closer to delivery through a joint venture with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, extending the This City model across a larger pipeline of council-owned brownfield sites over the coming decade.
The partnership framework itself is not new. The council approved the formation of the joint venture in June 2025, setting out a structure under which GMPF would act as the preferred investment partner for the second phase of This City. The target is around 1,600 homes, delivered as mixed-tenure build-to-rent communities with a minimum 20% affordable provision at Manchester Living Rent.
What has become clearer since then is the likely shape of the pipeline. Postal Street in the Northern Quarter is the most advanced site and is expected to act as the first scheme to move through the venture. Council documents show the project has been developed to RIBA Stage 3, with a full planning application submitted in March 2025, and is designed to deliver 126 apartments alongside 7,500 sq ft of ground-floor space intended to accommodate uses such as a GP or dental practice. Latest sector reporting indicates construction is expected to start in 2027.
The wider second-phase pipeline is more substantial. Current reporting points to seven sites across north, east, and central Manchester, including a four-phase Monsall scheme in Harpurhey that could deliver more than 650 homes, as well as smaller developments in Longsight, Ardwick, and Ancoats. That creates a more repeatable brownfield delivery model than a one-off council-backed housing project, especially where local authority land can be combined with institutional capital rather than sold outright.
The funding structure is central to that approach. Under the council’s approved framework, GMPF is expected to fund construction, while Manchester provides equity through land value and related capital input. Individual sites are then intended to come forward on a scheme-by-scheme basis, with separate approvals on land and commercial terms as feasibility work is completed. That should allow the venture to sequence projects rather than force the full pipeline into market at once.
The council has positioned This City as a delivery vehicle for affordable, low-carbon homes, and the first completed scheme, No.1 Ancoats Green, was designed to operate as a net-zero mixed-tenure development. That project delivered 129 homes, with 30% let at Manchester Living Rent, and reached practical completion during summer 2025.
Manchester is not alone in looking to pension capital to help unlock urban housing sites, but the scale here is notable because it ties long-term institutional finance directly to council-owned land and a pipeline that can be phased over time. If Postal Street sets the pace, the next question is how quickly the rest of the sites can move from framework and feasibility into procurement, planning, and starts on site.
