Liverpool office market shows signs of recovery

CITY centre office take-up jumped by 22% to 316,964 sq ft in Liverpool last year.

According to figures from Liverpool Vision, Professional Liverpool and the business improvement district (BID), there were 108 transactions.

This was the largest number in 10 years and double the transactions in 2012, but many of these were for office suites of less than 1,000 sq ft.

Just four deals were over 20,000 sq ft with the largest being law firm Hampson Hughes taking 68,000 sq ft at the Edward Pavillion, Albert Dock.

Professional services accounted for nearly half of all lets in the city centre, and the growing creative and media sector represented 21% of take-up across the city, and 10% in the centre.

There was less demand from the shipping and distribution sector with take-up falling from 111,503 sq ft to 46,133 sq ft. The public sector accounted for 11% of lets in the central business district.

Across the Liverpool City Region, which includes the the city fringe and the out-of-town market, take-up was down slightly at 534,100 sq ft from 534,730 sq ft.