Sheffield City Centre

[DaveJC]

There was a guy on the tv a couple of days ago saying that the high street is now dead, so best get used to it. Well I had worked this our a few years ago when I started buying clothing from the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco and electrical appliances on-line. However I just wonder what the folk pictured in some of the turn of the 19th century images would have imagined the city centre to look like in say the 1960’s, in essence all that we are part and parcel of is change, some of it going full circle, just have a Google at the amount of city centre living there is now compared to then, you might just get a shock.

The City Centre appears to be heading in the direction of part Hallam University campus and part public sector office space with a huge amount of inner city living, I reckon the student let properties on and around Ecclesall Road will suffer a mass exodus as their occupants will favour living on campus as against the most expensive area in Sheffield. M&S on Fargate might just become the largest convenience store imaginable, I’m going to stay positive, at least it is very unlikely that bombs will be falling on it.

Those grand old buildings that have survived the planners short sightedness are heading for usage that their original occupants could never have imagined, I somehow don’t see the egg box being one of them.

[eldomsmith]

To add to this, there are a lot of older terraced houses (example; around Bramall Lane area) converted to student rentals. I wonder what their future will be now there is abundant - and more on the way - purpose built modern student accommodation? Are these converted/repurposed old homes as attractive to students wanting to live and study in this age? Will these properties gradually convert back to residential let or sales or become victims of re-development? A lot are specifically aimed at the student market. Seems to me there may be a lot of nervous or frustrated buy to let landlords looking at the changing Sheffield landscape.

[DaveJC]

I have known many BTL landlords on a professional basis and have noticed one thing that most have in common, this being the lack of understanding of the requirements of the end user. Generally they are well heeled self employed in other areas and start BTL renting as another string to their bow, some end up as major players, some don’t. I actually apportion some blame on the universities, an eighteen year old kid might just think that living where the wealthy spend their leisure time a good idea, and rely on their student grant along with the bank of mum and dad to keep them to the standard that they clearly cannot afford, do the universities have a housing advice officer, if not perhaps they should consider it?