Search the Community

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36086012 " Listening to details of when the M62 motorway is likely to be upgraded - or how the high-speed railway HS2 is progressing - may not be your idea of a scintillating weekend. But this Saturday and Sunday 500 Chinese investors will be lapping up such details in two of Hong Kong's s*****iest hotels, along with their dim sum. No longer will they be staring at artist impressions of Canary Wharf or Battersea. Instead, lured by George Osborne's promotion of the "Northern Powerhouse", Chinese investors are packing their bags and heading up the M6. " " In the process the Chinese are helping to fuel the beginnings of a property boom and push up prices, particularly in Liverpool and Manchester. Little wonder that earlier this month the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reported that prices in London are expected to fall significantly over the next three months, while prices in the North West are expected to soar. " " 'First of all it's the Northern Powerhouse - because they've heard that much new infrastructure is coming to the North. And another thing is the railway,' she tells the BBC. " " In one recent development at Salford Quays, called the Dock Office, just half the apartments were sold to local people. A quarter went to Chinese nationals, and a further quarter went to Brits living abroad. Julie Twist, an estate agent who specialises in Manchester city centre apartments, was surprised at how much money the Chinese were prepared to spend. 'The prices were hefty on those. But £300 a square foot is nothing to them,' she says. 'It's definitely pushing up prices, because they're bringing a lot of cash over here.' " " The Chinese are not just buying Manchester. They are building it as well. The Beijing Engineering Construction Group is investing £800m in Manchester's Airport City, which will include a hub for other Chinese firms to set up. President Xi Jinping saw the site in person when he visited last year. The street names will be in Mandarin as well as English. " " But property booms, like the gold rush, are unstoppable. Mr Wills-Woodward knows of one Chinese family who sold up in London, and drove up the M6 in search of new opportunities. 'Manchester is going to become the London of the North,' he predicts. " Typical BBC journalism