Developers confidence is high in key British cities, crane index shows

Confidence among developers is strong across regional cities in the UK with a sustained levels of homes, offices, hotels, retail, education and student housing delivered in 2018, a new survey shows. Overall construction activity hit record levels last year, led by activity in Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, according to the latest crane survey from Deloitte. In Belfast there were 34 schemes under construction in the city centre with 21 schemes completed in 2018 and nine set for completion this year. The report says it was a healthy year for office development as work began on over 400,000 square feet of new Grade A space, which the survey said is making good progress against the Belfast Agenda target of 1.5 million square feet of new space by 2021.