UK Commercial Property News

The economy has continued to grow in Yorkshire, although it has slowed recently, but the office market in the main centres remains in the doldrums. On the other hand the outlook for the big shed market is favourable. At the moment the office market in Leeds appears to be the laggard among the big provincial cities with only 18,580 sq.metres (200,000 sq.ft.) let in the first nine months, many of the deals being small, said Richard Thornton of King Sturge. 12,600 sq.ft. of that total was let at 10 South Parade. Letting agents on the scheme are DTZ, Knight Frank and WSB. “It has been an odd year,” Thornton added, ”but should improve now the general election and the spending review are out of the way.

There are still a number of sizeable requirements in the market, such as for KPMG, and around 46,450 sq.metres (500,000 sq.ft.) of lease renewals between 2012 and 2016.” Leeds has a high dependence on the financial services industry as well as the public sector, where a decline in numbers must have an effect as it will in other Yorkshire cities such as Sheffield. Thornton said that the out of town business parks had seen a similar pattern to the Leeds city centre and had a comparable level of take up. As far as the economy is concerned, the latest report from the Yorkshire & Humberside PMI by Markit revealed continued growth which has now lasted 15 months in the private sector. The index declined from 57.1 in July to 54.9 in August with a central problem being the rise in output charges.

Patrick Bowes, Chief Economist of Yorkshire Forward, said: “While it is evident that demand has softened in August compared with July, the rate of new order growth remains robust and among the strongest in the UK.” A number of towns and cities remain, however, determined to continue with their programmes of refurbishment, notably Doncaster. Another positive factor is that the appetite for investments remains healthy with a number of sizeable deals this year.


The Yorkshire Commercial Property Register

The Yorkshire Commercial Property Register is a leading UK business property publication from Martin Austen Publishing. The aim of the publication is to offer a simple and effective means of finding Office Space in Yorkshire, Serviced Offices in Yorkshire and industrial commercial property in Yorkshire. You can also find the latest commercial property news for the Yorkshire region.