It’s official – Manchester is best performing regional city for offices

John Nash

Manchester’s reputation as the best performing city in the regional office market has been highlighted by the release of new figures.

The Manchester Office Agents Forum (MOAF) has recorded the highest quarter figures since 2010 with 621,01 sq ft let across 83 transactions in Q4 of 2016.

The final quarter figures take overall take up to 1,306,599sq ft, showing consistency with figures from the previous two years.

The strong final quarter figures show the city has outperformed cities including, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and Bristol.
 
Key transactions include a 165,005 q ft deal to Swinton Insurance at Ask’s 101 Embankment; a 45,446 sq ft letting to Co-op Digital at Federation House, NOMA and 63,661 sq ft of space sold to Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) at 6 Marlborough Street in the city centre. New build office schemes including No. 1 Spinningfields and XYZ building also announced deals on over 50,000 sq ft Grade ‘A’ space in the final quarter as supply continues to tighten.
 
CBRE topped the table in terms of table in terms of total sq ft let in the city centre across 39 transactions.
 
For acquisitions in the city centre, WHR acquired the largest amount of space at 171,716sq ft across four transactions.
 

Salford Quays gave another strong performance, transacting 314,923 sq ft of space in 2016, including 93,000 sq ft acquired by AJ Bell at Exchange Quay.
Similarly, south Manchester reported consistent figures with reinforced its position as a stable office market, securing deals on 546,701 sq ft space compared to 563,453 sq ft in 2015.
 
John Nash, director at Canning O’Neill, and MOAF spokesperson, said: “Overall the market has shown resilience and take up across Manchester has remained remarkably consistent. The EU referendum certainly made a few pause for thought but the underlying strength of the occupier market shone through in the final figures.  Rents across the city have continued to see steadygrowth, with quoting rents for refurbished office space now at £30 per sq ft.”
 
Formed in 2009, MOAF members include CBRE, Colliers, Canning O’Neill, Cushman & Wakefield, Edwards & Co, Bilfinger GVA, JLL, Lambert Smith Hampton, Matthews & Goodman, OBI Property, Savills, TSG Property Consultants, WHR Property Consultants and BE Group.

 

 

Disposals

 

 

Total sq ft let

         No. of transactions

CBRE

346,807

39

OBI

324,280

66

C&W

317,522

22

JLL

264,290

37

Edwards & Co

241,811

84

WHR

202,565

50

Canning O’Neill

184,023

50

Savills

148,401

31

Colliers

138,098

26

GVA

83,463

16

 

 

Acquistions

 

 

Total sq ft

No. of transactions

WHR

171,716

4

Knight Frank

147,176

3

C&W

131,666

4

OBI

126,901

21

JLL

25,177

6

Edwards & Co

15,673

2

GVA

15,153

3

M&G

12,808

3

Canning O’Neil

11,760

5

CBRE

10,239

3

 

 

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