2012’s sluggish economy didn’t slow down city centre and out-of-town office take-up activity according to the leading quarterly regional office market report by GVA.
Regional take-up reported across the nine GVA regional office markets reached 6.38 million sq ft in 2012, similar to the annual average for city centre and above average performance for out-of-town.
The Big Nine reports the regional city centre take-up totalled 995,095 sq ft in Q4 and 3.77 million throughout 2012, 6% below the annual average.
City centre take-up in Bristol finished the year above the quarterly average, at 108,503 sq ft. Birmingham and Manchester both finished the year strongly as well.
Ben O’Connor, Office Agency Associate at GVA in Bristol commented: “A lack of confidence in what remains a steady market is accentuating a state of continued unease. The reality is that, despite slow progress with deals across the board, transactions are not letting up. Bristol is however in a position where take-up in the future is going to be reduced as a consequence of the lack of future supply.
“2012 was characterised by a larger number of smaller secondary deals, and there remains a reasonably healthy level of demand, evidenced by known requirements and upcoming lease events. This is however set against a backdrop of ever reducing Grade A supply in Bristol city centre.”
Office take-up in the out-of-town markets was 767,000 sq ft in Q4 an incredibly strong performance across the nine markets which stood at 34% above the quarterly average. The Bristol market finished the year below its quarterly average at 53,736 sq ft.
