Quarterly take-up drops 4% in Leeds

Take-up during Q2 2019 in the UK city office markets outside of London was at its highest level since Q1 2018 – but Leeds saw levels drop by 4%.

According to the latest snapshot report by global real estate business CBRE, the total across the city office market was up by 55% to 1.9m sq ft. But take-up in Leeds for Q2 2019 fell by 4% but “remained high relative to trend” at 213,300 sq ft transacted.

The business services sector accounted for the largest proportion of take-up at 33%, with consumer services and leisure second at 23%.  Availability in Leeds fell to 1.3m sq ft, below the 10-year average of 1.4m sq ft.

The largest deal of the quarter saw Sky Bet acquire 135,900 sq ft at 4 Wellington Place in Leeds.

Three out of four key deals across UK markets during Q2 2019 were completed in the North of England. Sky Bet’s deal in Leeds was the largest leasing deal outside of London.

The team at CBRE in Manchester completed two of the four largest deals of the quarter – 121,900 sq ft for Spaces at 125 Deansgate and on behalf of WPP Group for 82,000 sq ft at Globe & Simpson on Quay Street.

Alex Hailey, Director, CBRE’s Office Agency team in Leeds, said: “Occupier confidence remains strong as evidenced by the Sky Bet pre-let deal at Wellington Place and the 70,000 sq ft letting to Link Asset Services at Central Square.

“We are still seeing activity from occupiers looking to move into the region and currently we have more than 400,000 sq ft of named requirements over 10,000 sq ft.   Use of flexible working space is increasing as demonstrated in the recent deal for Spaces at 7 Park Row and we are also seeing a number of requirements on the back of Channel 4 coming to the city.”

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