A city centre estate agent has told how his firm sold homes worth a staggering £52m over the last 12 months as Manchester's property market looks to bounce back from Covid.

Deansgate-based Reside Manchester sold 167 properties at an average of £307,000 between August 2020 and July 2021, all to UK based buyers.That's £51.25m in sales, an average of just under £1m a week, while the firm also let 555 properties over the same period.Managing director Anthony Stankard said: "We've had a year like no other, but despite everything we've been through Manchester continues to thrive.The optimistic outlook is shared by Ian Barber, from property firm Ringley Group, which has offices in Manchester and London.

He said: "The market is very, very strong.

"It's probably as strong as I've known it for many years.

"I'm Manchester born and bred, I've been working in the industry for 20 years and I've long thought supply would catch up with demand here, especially the way it's been going in recent years.

"But we are nowhere that yet, and I don't think we will be for some time to come."

Ian says Manchester's property market has bounced back from the pandemic far quicker than other major cities, including London.

He said: "There's massive gap between London and Manchester at the moment.

"In London the market is still not back to where it was pre-covid. It's still quite a fragile market, but in Manchester we will advertise a rental and have to take that advert down within a day because we've got that many people booked in for appointments.

"It's been a hard 18 months for everyone, but I don't think anyone would have seen what happened next in Manchester."