Manchester's High-Rise Boom is Producing Better Property Lawyers

Manchester is producing better property lawyers than it was ten years ago, and I believe the city's high-rise boom is a major reason why.

I see the difference every time we recruit. Younger conveyancers are coming through with experience of major new-build developments already on their CVs. Ten years ago, those skills just didn't exist amongst junior candidates in Manchester.

Junior conveyancers in Manchester are now cutting their teeth on work that previously would often have been left to a partner or a more senior lawyer.

That change reflects what has been happening across Manchester itself. The city built a record 4,766 homes in the latest year alone, according to Manchester City Council.

New-build work has become something of an accidental specialism of our Manchester office as the city has developed around us. At Deansgate Square alone, we acted for more than 100 buyers. You cannot deal with that volume of complex work by leaving it all with a handful of senior lawyers. More people in the team have to learn how to do it.

There is now so much of this work that firms have to train people on it from day one.

Why High-Rise Conveyancing Requires More From Lawyers

A straightforward freehold house and an apartment in a new high-rise can be two very different conveyancing jobs.

A 30 or 40-page lease can contain dozens of rights and restrictions that will affect how somebody lives in their new home. The job is to know which of those your client needs to be particularly aware of.

There can also be a managing agent, service charges and far more paperwork to understand than with a straightforward freehold purchase. The lawyer needs to understand what all of that will actually mean for the buyer once they own the property.

I have recently come across new-build leases that could prevent buyers from filming TikToks inside their own flats. That is not going to matter to every buyer, but if you are acting for an influencer who earns money creating content from home, they could buy their new apartment, start filming there and find themselves in breach of the lease.

That is something their lawyer needs to pick up before they buy.

What This Means for the Next Generation

Years of high-rise development have now built that experience into Manchester's legal market.

Manchester needs conveyancers who understand the homes being built here and the legal work involved in buying them. Years of development have helped create that expertise locally.

There are simply more property lawyers in Manchester with genuine new-build experience behind them. That knowledge is no longer concentrated among a relatively small number of senior lawyers in the way it once was.

That experience is being actively sought by firms in the city too, with current Manchester vacancies specifically looking for lawyers with new-build, plot sales and residential development experience.

-ENDS-

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