Big things are happening in the South West Wales regional economy.

Listed in no particular order of merit, the first is the appointment onto the board of the Swansea Bay Region as chairman of billionaire Sir Terry Matthews.

The Swansea Bay Region is a recently new regional layer of administration inaugurated in July 2013. The board meets bi-monthly.

Sir Terry is Wales’ richest man, a go-getting individual who brings considerable commercial nous to the authority in addition to contacts that enable things to happen at the highest level.

Sir Terry made his fortune in telecommunications and in respect of property bought the Celtic Manor Hotel for £275,000.00, which he developed over thirty years into the biggest hotel in Wales, a resort of International standing. It has 700 staff, takes 5000 guests over a week at 85% occupancy with the presidential suite costing £2556 for 2 nights. Last year’s figures saw the business £474,000.00 ahead of budget for the half-year. The resort succeeded in bringing the Ryder Cup to Wales and has also hosted UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Obama amongst other world leader delegates who attended the 2014 NATO Summit there. Sir Terry is perhaps one of the best development mentors South West Wales could have!

He first took the chair of the Swansea Bay Region board meeting in November 2014.

Sit Terry’s appointment coincided with a fresh and replacement leadership in the City and County of Swansea itself within the same period. The new Council leader Rob Stewart has the approachable qualities of an individual who grew up in Morriston and combines with the business expertise amongst the likes of Robert Francis-Davies as Cabinet Member for Enterprise and the new administration have created an entirely positive change of culture and attitude for the Council into an enabling one. The new broom sweeps clean, they say!

Swansea Council has consequently brought forward plans long latent, into the formal adoption of the City Centre Strategic Framework, for which see my next article.

The plan basically, is to develop Swansea into a formidable “powerhouse” for the South West Wales region.

Sir Terry has engineered contributory efforts, in particular gathering as volunteer contributors to the design, International urban designers from as far afield as Italy and Sydney in Australia.

Swansea is looking now at the most ambitions and exciting developments in twenty years, proposed to be rolling out progressively over the next five. These circumstances pose considerable opportunities for private investors, but in particular as far as I am concerned I see opportunities for those perhaps either side of the £1m mark or above, typical London buyers who may wish to escape falling yields there and the South East. Please contact me if you shall wish to explore positioning your investment strategy onto this gathering tide.