When I told my landlord I was planning to move out and buy my own home, he offered some advice: “You need reserves”. He was not only a landlord with extensive experience of the local property market but had also recently helped his son buy his first house.

He explained that in Sheffield’s market, it’s not just about having a deposit. Houses are regularly selling well above the asking price, with buyers often forced into blind bidding rather than negotiating openly.

The irony wasn’t lost on me that the person advising me to “save more” was the same person I’d been paying rent to for the past two years.

Following this conversation, I began organising viewings for various properties across the city and quickly realised that he might have been right. When I enquired about one property, I was told that the current offer already stood at £25,000 above the initial asking price.

I had always been told that as a first-time buyer, you often appear as the most attractive option – no chain, ready to move quickly and typically seen as lower risk. But in a market flooded with landlords willing to pay cash and equally free from a chain, this began to feel less like the reality.

Candidly, I am fortunate enough to have some support from my parents, but if homes regularly sell above the asking price, many buyers need a financial cushion that they simply don’t have.

Sheffield has one of the highest graduate retention rates in the country with studies showing rates of up to 40%. I am part of that figure, and yet here I am, trying to make my life in Sheffield permanent – and struggling to do so. This experience of buying a home has made me think differently about Sheffield’s housing market – and about what kind of city we want it to become.

What does that mean for a city that attracts thousands of students every year? Let alone those on the housing waiting list, or those who are trying to start families here.

On top of this, Sheffield is becoming increasingly attractive to young professionals looking for a place to live. Recent announcements highlight how transport investment is helping to reshape Sheffield’s future. The government’s Northern Powerhouse Rail plans aim to improve connections across the North, with faster and more reliable trains between major cities such as Sheffield, Leeds and York. The first phase will prioritise upgrades and electrification on key routes, including Leeds–Sheffield, with delivery expected in the 2030s.

At a regional level, South Yorkshire is also rethinking how people move around the area. Mayor Oliver Coppard recently unveiled a £1.5bn “People’s Network” transport plan which will integrate buses, trams and active travel into a single system designed to make transport more reliable, affordable and sustainable across the region.

Sheffield is growing, but this growth raises an important question: how do we ensure the city grows in a way that supports the people who already live here?

Sheffield’s emerging Local Plan has received a great deal of attention – and criticism. Even actor Sean Bean has spoken publicly about concerns around the amount of Green Belt land proposed for development.

However, what is sometimes lost in the debate is scale. The Local Plan proposes releasing around 3.5% of Sheffield’s total Green Belt for development, meaning that more than 96% would remain protected. What has received less attention, however, is the focus on building new homes within the city, particularly on brownfield land.

Recently, developers Capital & Centric and Igloo, in conjunction with the council and Homes England, were announced for several of Sheffield’s Strategic Housing Sites. These brownfield sites, described as “catalyst sites”, are expected to deliver around 750 homes at Furnace Hill and 430 homes at Neepsend.

Cllr Tom Hunt described the emerging Local Plan as bringing ‘real benefits for communities. It will help us to provide more affordable housing, regenerate derelict land, create new jobs, improve public transport and reduce our city’s carbon emissions’.

Much of this development will not happen until the 2030s. But Cllr Tom Hunt, Leader of the Council, has expressed confidence in the plan—and that gives me hope, not just for my own prospects of buying a home here, but for Sheffield and the generations who will build their lives here.

In the meantime, I suppose I should take my landlord’s advice and make sure I’ve built up those “reserves”.