Strong Q4 sees Birmingham office market lettings reach a six year high
A FOURTH quarter rally in the central Birmingham office market saw annual lettings reach 713,460 sq ft – the highest total since 2008.
The figures were boosted significantly by the signing off of the HS2 deal at Two Snowhill. The company behind the high-speed rail project is taking 97,958 sq ft of space.
Office take up in quarter four totalled 341,164 sq ft in 41 deals, not far off the 372,296 sq ft achieved in the first three quarters of the year.
The 2014 year-end total of 713,460 sq ft in 148 deals compares favourably with the 664,147 sq ft in 128 deals for 2013 and even more favourably with the 500,955 sq ft in 133 deals for 2012.
Not since 2008’s 959,317 sq ft has there been a higher annual total and that figure itself was skewed by a large pre-let to law firm Wragge & Co, also at Two Snowhill.
Whilst property agents will be mindful of the effect one big deal can have on the annual total, they will certainly see encouraging signs from this latest set of figures.
