MULTI-MILLION pound investments kept the Manchester property market talking during a year which would otherwise have seemed eerily quiet.

2003 will be remembered as the year when European investors flooded into Manchester's property market.

Driven by the slow performance of their home economies, by the lacklustre performance of the London property scene and by the bargains on offer in this part of the world, foreign investors jostled for a slice of the city's real estate.

According to surveyors Knight Frank, no less than 70,200 sq m of office space was acquired during the year at a total value of £165m.

The year ended with one of the UK's largest property transactions when Nick Lelsau's Burford Group acquired a large slice of Trafford Park and a brace of city centre buildings for £385m.

During the year Danish investors spent heavily in Manchester city centre and in Lancashire, where they bought supermarkets; Italian investors Nextra Immobilia paid £24m for 201 Deansgate and German investors snapped up property at Great Bridgewater Street.

The investment market was so hot that deals which might have been headline-grabbing in a normal year turned into also-rans. Into this category falls Sellar Property Group's £34m purchase of the Ladysmith Shopping Centre, Ashton.

In the city centre, Kenmore Property Group splashed out £18m buying No 1 Marsden Street while Warner Estates paid £14.8m for nearby Norfolk House.

Elisabeth House at St Peter's Square was sold to The Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund for around £15.5m. Investment activity apart, 2003 wasn't a great year for deals. Argent's prominent No 1 Piccadilly office building was completed but without any pre-let deals to celebrate. The £37m building still stands empty.

The Guardian Media Group, owners of the Manchester Evening News, provided the biggest sensation when they agreed to take 7,150 sq m at Allied London Properties' Spinning fields scheme, Deansgate. They will pay over £200 per sq metre for the new office space at No 2 Hardman Street. The Guardian Media Group joins the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Courts Service, both of whom have already signed up for huge new offices at the site.

Two other deals attracted attention. In April, online insurer Esure signed up for 4,700 sq m at Ask/Crosby's Rossetti Place office block at Quay Street. And as the year closed the Home Office lifted spirits in the gloomy south Manchester office market by signing up for 4,000 sq m of `green' floor-space at Manchester Airport Developments' The Station office scheme next to the airport's new £60m ground transport interchange.

Despite the slow market, developers continued to plan the next phase of property schemes. In November CTP took the wraps off its plans for a six-storey 5,570 sq m office block ay Princess Street/Kennedy Street.

The development would erase one of the city's most prominent derelict buildings.

Outside the city centre, Amec Developments is to press ahead with a 9,300 sq m office scheme at Ashton Moss, one of a number of East Manchester projects which moved ahead in 2003 thanks to the new M60 orbital motorway.

The announcement that government agency English Partnerships are spending £10.8m in the regeneration of Henry Square, Ashton, was also a sign of eastern promise.

In Salford the redevelopment of the former SnoWorld site at Middlewood Locks moved a step closer.

Developers Valley & Vale Properties and Beaupre Castle agreed on the £600m mixed-use scheme with Salford council.

The industrial property market remained stable and profitable throughout the year.

The strength of the freehold market was been the driving force. With interest rates low, many businesses thought it made sense to buy and pay a mortgage, then to rent.

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