Office agent’s forum predicts boost in take-up rates

MANCHESTER’S city centre office market has seen take-up rates boosted by 10% in the first half of 2010 to 324,890 sq ft, according to a new survey.

The Manchester Office Agents’ Forum also said that take-up rates in south Manchester also increased by 40% on the same period last year, to 306,842 sq ft.

It said that the main transactions to have taken place in the city to date this year have been the relocations of Brown Shipley and Marks and Spencer – both are moving to 3 Hardman St in Spinningfields, taking 15,000 sq ft and 21,000 sq ft respectively. 

Manchester Office Agents’ Forum spokesman, Chris Mulcahy of King Sturge, said: “It’s good news to see an improvement in the take-up figures in many of the main regional office markets compared to the 2009 figures but it is too early to draw any conclusions of recovery from this.

“It’s encouraging to see the region continuing to attract new inward investors particularly in this economic environment. Incentive levels still remain comparatively high but these are expected to reduce over the course of the next 12 months.” 

The Forum predicts that the underlying market take-up will generally remain steady over the next 12 months but added that there are a couple of 20,000 sq ft-plus transactions under offer that are expected to complete in the third quarter.

These should help to “significantly boost the take-up figures for the year”, it said.