Toronto, you had better look out. Chicago and Los Angeles, we own you.

Manchester, the English city that gave the world Manchester United Football Club, split the atom, and invented the screw thread, department stores and British modern popular democracy, has now got another title. It is North America's second busiest real estate construction market, just behind Toronto but ahead of everyone else. Or it would be second, if it weren't located in England.

Data from Deloitte Real Estate in the UK, and from Rider Levett Bucknall in the U.S., show just how powerful Manchester's three-year-long property boom really is.

The Deloitte Crane Survey and RLB's North American Crane Survey show Manchester ahead of all the U.S. cities, including busy Chicago and Los Angeles.

“If Manchester had featured in the recently published North American Crane Index, it would have ranked No. 2 — behind Toronto but in front of Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago," Deloitte Real Estate partner Simon Bedford told Construction Enquirer.

“That might have seemed like a remarkable stat a few years ago given Manchester only had one crane in the sky in 2011, but today the figure is a massive 78 sites under construction.”