Half of Birmingham’s office stock is poor quality
RESEARCH from property consultancy DTZ shows 50% of office stock in Birmingham is grade C, defined as poor quality.
But that’s better than the national figure which is 70%.
The research is based on a assessment of nearly 3,000 buildings sq ft in Birmingham, London City & fringes and Reading as representative markets for the UK as a whole.
In Birmingham, the report revealed that just over 50% of the city’s 15.4m sq ft of office stock was classed as grade C.
David Tonks, senior director, office agency at DTZ in Birmingham, said: “The evidence confirms that there is active demand for grade C space in central Birmingham. The combination of cost constraints amongst occupiers and landlords willingness to accept lease drafting that insulates tenants from fluctuating property costs has ensured that the occupancy levels in certain city centre grade C buildings has remained largely unaltered over the past few years.
“In contrast, a large number of grade C buildings located on the fringe of the established city centre office market are struggling to attract interest from occupiers on any terms and it is these buildings where availability has increased markedly. The challenge facing the market is to find alternative uses that will remove the remaining grade C buildings from the market supply.”
DTZ expects that grade C availability will increase further in regional locations in the coming years. Grade A and B landlords are offering significant incentives to encourage grade C tenants to move on low cost or cost-neutral upgrades. This trend has already been observed in the big nine regional UK markets, as tenants have upgraded from grade B to A.
