The UK seaside city with £1bn transformation and £70k homes - 'best place to invest'

Once branded "scruffy" and "dilapidated," Swansea's high street has long fought to shed its reputation. National retailers disappeared and, for years, reports of antisocial behaviour added to the uneasy feeling in the city centre. Yet according to South Wales Police, those incidents are on the decline - down 39.5% last summer - hinting that change may be on the horizon.

You can see the city is still in transition. The bar district feels quiet for a student city, and the high street is dotted with closed shops. But, Swansea is on the brink of a major transformation - a £1billion regeneration project designed to revive the city and bring more jobs into the area. With tourism worth £658 million a year to Swansea, and The Sunday Times pipping it as the third best place to invest in property in 2025, developers hope Swansea's next chapter will be one of renewal.

Swansea's Business Improvement District manager, Andrew Douglas, is well aware of the city's past reputation, but points out that since January 2020, some 177 new businesses have opened in the city centre, in a time when 82 have closed.

"The opening and closing rate is phenomenal. So far this year, 33 businesses opened in the city centre," he says.

He says Swansea's high street took a hit as the drive to online shopping kicked in, but says: "Swansea has never been what it is now," adding: "It's built around the coastline. It's a beautiful, beautiful place."

Andrew says the change began about 10 years ago, when Rob Stewart was appointed as council leader, who he says was instrumental in obtaining the Swansea Bay City Deal, a £1.28 billion project to regenerate areas across south-west Wales.

"Everyone loves to bash a council. But Swansea Council are really good at doing their best to promote the city," he says. "I love the city, and Rob loves the city, and [so do] the people who are involved in developing."

This rings true as we speak to Cllr Rob Stewart, who enthuses: "As somebody who's lived here all my life, I'm really passionate about trying to make Swansea the best it can be."

Among the flagship projects is the new arena, which he says attracts around 300,000 visitors a year, and 71-72 The Kingsway, a major office hub that he estimates will contribute around £40 million a year to the local economy.

He acknowledges that Swansea, like many other cities, lost national retailers after Covid. But new names like Rituals and Popeyes are on their way, alongside a push to champion local traders.

"We want to make sure that Swansea isn't just a carbon copy of what you can find elsewhere. We want to have some unique selling points as well," says Cllr Stewart.

Longtime resident Catherine Price, who has lived in Swansea for 58 years, tells us she misses many of the old national retailers, like Wilko, but says the city has improved.

"It has changed a lot over the years, some better, some not better," she says. "But I do like it here, I like Swansea very much."

Aside from the high street, social media manager Ricky Webber at The Gamers Emporium voiced concerns that "other things need addressing", such as a lack of highly paid or stable jobs in the city.

"We need something to bring jobs to the area," he says, noting a lack of permanent contracts from larger employers.

"So people kind of get into these ruts. They've got a job for three months and then they've got nothing for a couple of months. There's issues with poverty in the area."

Some 2,000 employees lost their positions last year at the nearby Port Talbot steelworks, and copper used to be a major industry in Swansea, but it has now disappeared, and fishing has also declined.

According to the council, attracting new industries like fintech and medtech, is part of the plan. Mr Douglas says: "If anybody wants to open up a business in Swansea, I will back them and I will support them."

"There's no closed-door policy," adds Cllr Stewart. "The policy is better jobs close to home. That's exactly what the city deal is doing, making sure that we attract companies and jobs and professions into the city centre."

He hopes that more people working, living, and visiting will encourage businesses to open up. He points to Veeqo, a Swansea startup that grew from two employees to 150 before being bought by Amazon, as proof that the model can work.

The upcoming Skyline Adventure Park, a £60 million project overlooking the city, is projected to draw half a million visitors in its first year.

The council leader says that now developers are buying and regenerating buildings, which was "always the strategy as part of the city deal".

"We had to have some public sector leadership to get the investment flowing, with the aim of that private sector investment coming in behind it."

Tourist Marcia, enjoying a book outside the ruins of the 12th-century Swansea Castle, is sold. "It's got everything that you'd need and it's amazing because you've got the shoreline just not far from here as well," she says.

"It's got pretty much all the stores that you'd possibly need, but it's not overwhelmed with retail. But I think it's very nicely laid out as well with the traffic."

Local business owner Jamie Tibbot is also a proud supporter of his hometown, praising Swansea's seafront, size and affordability.

Chatting in his office in the sprawling marina, he compares a colleague's £690,000 bungalow in Poole, joking: "In Swansea, you could buy a castle for that," adding: "In comparison, you could live like a King here."

A quick look on Rightmove shows a two-bedroom flat being marketed for £70,000 in Swansea's beachfront district.

The BID manager adds: "How many other cities in the UK can I grab myself a cup of coffee and a sandwich, walk out of my office in the heart of the city centre, and have my lunch on the beach?"

The future redevelopment plans include a new hotel, a library in the city centre, and the redevelopment of Castle Gardens, a historic square.

Cllr Stewart highlights: "That £1 billion pipeline is well into delivery and we're confident that things will continue to improve."

However, he concedes: "There's always more to do, you never rest on your laurels, you've got to do more. But I think we've turned the city into an area which is seeing consistent delivery and development."

One thing that needs improving still is the high street, according to residents. Ricky Webber says it is still a work in progress.

"If you walk down Oxford Street now, there are quite a few empty buildings. It needs something to help it along," he says.

"At one point the high street was really run down. As the gateway to the city, you would come in from the train station and walk down the high street and it looked intimidating, it looked rough.

"But they've put a lot of work into bringing it back up. For the most part, it has got a lot better. I think the city as a whole is moving in more or less the right direction."

Mr Tibbot, who has lived in Swansea for 17 years, agrees. Despite loving the city, he admits the high street remains "a bit of a disappointment."

"There is investment coming in, which is good. I went for a walk a few weeks ago and you can see a lot of the buildings are being refurbished and there's new people coming in. Things are starting to happen."

One thing residents commented on is the number of new housing developments compared to leisure units, leaving little to attract visitors.

"Unfortunately, you go to most marinas and there are things to do, there's loads of restaurants and it creates a buzz," says Mr Tibbot. "So that's where it lacks."

It's a sentiment shared by Mr Webber, who adds that in the city centre "every time something closes, instead of becoming a shop, it becomes student accommodation", adding "we could do with a city centre".

One thing rang true for both him and the BID manager: business rates, which are set by Welsh Government. Mr Douglas says it makes the units unviable, referencing one small café in a shopping centre that has been closed for 10 years.

"The business rates for somebody else to take on that unit, they've got to sell 50 grand's worth of sausages and chips before they've paid their staff," he says. "That's an awful lot of sausages and chips."

It's clear the regeneration is far from finished, but with national recognition as a place to invest and hopeful feedback among residents, signs of progress are starting to show.