Commenting on the recent announcement that Town Centre Securities (TCS) has agreed to let 170,000 sq ft to Leeds City Council, Adam Varley, Head of Office Agency at Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) in Leeds, said: “The Leeds office market has been very active over the past 12 months and this is another great deal for the city.
“Our recent Office Market Pulse research shows that Q3 take-up figures in Leeds were very strong, with 53 transactions totalling 195,360 sq ft. There are also an additional number of deals in the pipeline that are scheduled to complete in Q4, which will reduce the stock to the lowest level seen for years.
“Total take-up for the year stands at an impressive 829,008 sq ft, compared with 610,064 sq ft at the same point in 2012 and demand for grade A space currently outstrips supply by more than three times. With several large deals due to complete in Q4, including 60,000 sq ft to Lowell Group, we expect the end-of-year total to exceed 1m sq ft, which will reduce the available stock to its lowest level for many years.
“Confidence is starting to return to the property market in Yorkshire but without further speculative development, Leeds runs the risk of having to turn occupiers away because there is nowhere for them to go.
“It will be interesting to see how the buildings that Leeds City Council is vacating are redeveloped following to their move to Merrion House. While refurbishment and re-letting could be the obvious choice, the changes to permitted development rights could mean that we see appropriate properties being transformed into residential units.”
