The largest and most populous city outside of London, Birmingham has a population of over 1 million residents and its population increased over 100,000 between 2001 and 2015.
Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century when the town was at the forefront of advances in science, economic development and technology. Birmingham produced a number of innovations that laid foundations for the modern industrial society.
A diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity lasted well into the 20th century.
Birmingham’s metropolitan economy is the 2nd largest in the UK with a GDP of $121.1bn as of 2014.
Today Birmingham’s economy is dominated by the service sector, in 2012 this accounted for over 80% of the city’s employment. Birmingham is the largest centre in the UK for employment in education, health and public administration.
With over 16,000 start up’s registered in 2013, second only to London in entrepreneurship, Birmingham has a good pedigree in successful new businesses.
The largest percentage of sales in the Birmingham area over the last year have been terraced properties with an average sold price of just under £135,000. Next are semi-detached properties with an average sold price of £168,000 and flats coming in at just over £119,000.
The overall sold price in Birmingham was £159,000, which was £9,000 more expensive than the average in Birmingham’s city centre.
Sold prices rose 4% on the previous year and were 4% up on their 2007 prices of £152,000.
Lend Invest ad Move with Us both reported recently that various postcodes in Birmingham offer the highest rental yields available, with the B44 and B7 postcodes coming up trumps with available yields of between 10.4% – 13.5%.
The HS2 rail link has reinvigorated the Birmingham market, a development by Knight Frank sold out in just days last year, the fastest selling development in the city in years.
Reduced living and rental costs for London commuters means Birmingham is expected to see a massive increase in rental demand in the near future.
Birmingham city council has also recently pledged a further investment of £13.2 billion into plans for the city, £10.5 billion for the city centre.
Birmingham is expected to massively benefit from the new HS2 high-speed rail link, when open this will cut travel times to just 49 minutes from Birmingham Curzon Street to London Euston. The benefits of this is are predicted to include 50,000 additional jobs, 26,000 of these in Birmingham/Solihull, An average GVA increase of £680 per worker and a £4bn increase in economic output per year.
Birmingham’s five universities make it the largest centre of higher education learning outside of London.
Aston University, Birmingham City University, University of Birmingham, University college Birmingham and Newman University are all located in Birmingham. The University of Law, BPP University and the Open University’s all also hosted within the city.
Over 82% of students at Aston University and the University of Birmingham got jobs within 6 months of their graduation, one of the highest employability scores of all cities in the UK.
Over 80,000 students are calculated to attend Birmingham based universities, more than any other city outside of London. Birmingham also has over 33,000 research students, which is also the highest outside of London.