Manchester's city centre office market struggled for take up throughout 2011, according to new research. Image courtesy of: sxc.hu
New research published this week by the
Manchester Office Agents’ Forum revealed its city centre office market struggled for take up throughout 2011.
The forum revealed city centre demand lurched to 700,000 sq ft – down from 1,300,000 sq ft in 2010. The most notable deal to help the city’s flagging commercial property demand was the pre-let agreed with KPMG, totalling 63,000 sq ft.
There have been difficult trading conditions for towns and cities across the country, with struggling commercial office take-up – London being the exception to the rule as the capital continues to hold up in the current economic climate.
Richard Lace, spokesman for the forum, said: “Whilst take-up in the city centre is down on the 10-year average figure of around 900,000 sq ft, Manchester is showing some resilience against the difficult trading conditions.
“This is illustrated by the pre-let to KPMG which has allowed GMPVF and Argent to kick-start the only predominantly speculative development outside of the London region.
“Although 2012 will no doubt be another difficult year, we are confident that occupier demand will remain steady, with significant named requirements in the market on behalf of occupiers including Pannone, BUPA and Aviva.”
Although commercial property take-up in Manchester’s city centre was poor over the last 12 months, there are signs of optimism in south Manchester, with office space demand increasing from 483,000 sq ft in 2010 to 486,000 sq ft in 2011.
The weakening of the North West commercial property market has also been noted by the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
In its latest
UK Commercial Market Survey the RICS revealed increasing availability of commercial property to rent in the North West due to falling occupier demand.
Overall tenant demand from businesses fell throughout the region in Q4 2011, albeit at a slower rate than in Q3 2011, with 15 percent more surveyors reporting decreases in demand rather than increases in interest from prospective entrepreneurs and businesses.