Manchester
House prices rose 6.5 per cent last year, according to Hometrack, compared with 6 per cent for England and Wales as a whole. The average price for a flat or maisonette is now £132,600, compared with £170,500 nationally.
Now on sale: Apartments in the iconic Beetham Tower are weeks from completion. The 47-storey icon on Deansgate was designed by Ian Simpson and is — for now — the tallest residential building in the UK.
Watch out for: Construction will begin this year on the 60-floor Woods Bagot-designed Inacity Tower, near Piccadilly. Completion is expected in 2009.

Leeds
House prices are up 5.2 per cent in a year. Average flat price £119,100.
Now on sale: The 32-storey Bridgewater Place, on Victoria Road, is close to completion.
Watch out for: Construction will begin this year on the two Lumiere towers, the tallest of which is to be 54 storeys. Philippe Starck’s company Yoo has been busy designing the 500 apartments in the development but completion is years off.

Sheffield
House prices up 8 per cent in a year. Average flat price £115,000.
Now on sale: Sheffield has been slow to attract landmark developments — the nearest thing is the popular Ward’s Brewery, featuring 140 flats over eight storeys.
Watch out for: The Conran touch is coming, in the form of the 32-floor City Lofts development St Paul’s Tower, on which construction will begin this year.
Birmingham House prices are up 4.2 per cent in a year. Average flat price £108,300.
Now on sale: The 39-storey Beetham Tower, designed by Ian Simpson, pictured below.
Watch out for: The second phase of 14-storey Masshouse, a ten-year project in the city’s Eastside, will soon be launched. The proposed 50-storey Arena Central Tower has been cancelled.

Liverpool
House prices are up 7.9 per cent in a year. Average flat price £129,400.
Now on sale: The mixed-use 27-storey Beetham Tower, which has views of the Welsh Mountains as far as Snowdon from the upper storeys.
Watch out for: The 40-floor Beetham Tower West, with five floors of penthouse apartments, should be completed this year.

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