The Manchester Office Agents Forum has revealed that the take-up of office space in Manchester city centre for the first quarter of 2018 was 442,083 square feet, which is more than double the amount of the first quarter of 2017.
There were 82 large office space transactions completed in the first three months of 2018. Prominent deals that boosted the office space market in Manchester were the law firm Irwin Mitchell, which took 33,382 square feet of space, and CBRE real estate service with 11,309 square feet at One St. Peter’s Square. These two deals, and the ones at 3 New Bailey, made up 45% of the total office space take-up.
The supply of office space is not keeping up with demand, which is why many businesses pre-let space before an office project has been completed. The 3 New Bailey development is an example of this, with most of the space pre-let before completion.
Rob Yates of real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield said:
“We have long been of the view that the supply of quality office accommodation is constrained and savvy occupiers are having to respond to this by committing to pre-lets.”
Paul Mills of chartered surveyors OBI Property Ltd said:
“The Q1 figures for out-of-town office markets are encouraging. There is a good quantity of larger requirements circulating in the marketplace and we therefore expect take up to continue to be very strong during the remainder 2018.”
