City centre office take-up booms in fourth quarter
Office take-up across the Big Nine markets in 2016 reached the highest level during quarter four, with Leeds also seeing a strong performance in city centre deals.
According to GVA’s latest research, the total city centre take-up in Q4 for all Big Nine cities reached 1.67m sq ft, 30% up on the five year quarterly average and the highest city centre quarterly take-up for a year.
The Leeds City centre office market had a strong quarter with the completion of four significant office deals, including the sale of 22,400 sq ft to MPS at 1 Victoria Place. Other deals included BDO’s relocation to Central Square, Shoosmith forthcoming opening of its new Leeds office at Platform and Blacks Solicitors’ relocation to City Point.
The positive momentum of Leeds’s office market is set continue, says GVA, as there is currently 200,000 sq ft of speculative space under construction at 3 Wellington Place and Platform.
Other notable activity across Leeds has seen the GPU shortlist for its circa 400,000 sq ft design and build requirement with potential shortlisted locations being suggested to include Wellington Place, 2 Whitehall Riverside and BAM’s Latitude scheme.
Matthew Tootell, director in offices at GVA Leeds, said: “This last quarter saw a number of notable relocations but also excellent to see new office occupiers being attracted in to the city such as Shoosmiths.”
“With a positive pipeline of activity lined up for 2017, we are confident that the coming year will be another positive year.”
Across the Big Nine cities analysed by GVA, Q4 out-of-town take up amounted to 860,000 sq ft, up by 4% compared to the five year quarterly average. Manchester accounts for a third of this, however take-up was also above average in Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool.
In terms of sectors, professional services was the most active during 2016, making up 27% of all deals over 5,000 sq ft, while financial services made up 19%, with insurance and asset management being particularly strong.
The recent strong growth seen in the TMT sector was not sustained during 2016, accounting for 10% of deals, compared to a five year average of 16%.
