credit crunch

AOL pulls the plug on its user-generated content site

Admin | Tuesday 18 November 2008

AOL is to close its user-generated content site on 18 December.

King Street: from Starbucks to no bucks

Admin | Tuesday 5 August 2008

If you want an example of how the current economic situation is hitting retailers, take a walk along Manchester’s King Street.

Manchester’s luxury apartments

Admin | Tuesday 5 August 2008

The property crisis continues, with Manchester one of the cities that stands to be most severely affected (along with Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield), in part due to over-supply. And it seems to me that many of the ‘luxury’ apartments in the city centre are anything but.

Urban hipsters face repossession and negative equity

Admin | Tuesday 25 March 2008

As marketeers, estate agents and other vested interests continue to talk up property in Britain’s city centres, the reality begins to emerge in newspaper articles.

How will Manchester fare if there’s a recession?

Admin | Friday 22 February 2008

Walking around Ancoats recently I noticed how many of the buildings (many old cotton mills) are still empty. Some are semi-derelict, in other cases the shell has been tarted up a little, but not much done inside. It’s hard to know how many apartments in the converted and newly-built blocks are occupied. If it hasn’t … How will Manchester fare if there’s a recession?

Hacienda apartments

Admin | Tuesday 19 February 2008

I saw this sad ad in an estate agent’s window on Deansgate. In case you don’t know, the building that was The Hacienda nightclub was completely demolished in 2002. An apartment block was put up on the site and is now marketed as ‘The Hacienda’.

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