Brighton & Hove’s office market reveals a vibrant commercial city restricted by a lack of new space.
Stiles Harold Williams Brighton Agency team report:
- There is a total of circa 4.8million sq ft of offices in Brighton & Hove
- Currently only 150,000 sq ft of this lies vacant. Much of this is low quality so the real vacancy rate is nearer 3%
- Space on the periphery of the city is vulnerable to residential conversion
- 60,000 sq ft of new Grade A office space has been given planning permission to be built by McAleer & Rushe, who were behind CityView, the highly successful new-build development adjacent to Brighton Station opened last year
- CityView was the first speculative office-only new build development in the city for 20 years
- Since then a further 40,000 sq ft was refurbished by Aberdeen Asset Management at Mocatta House, Trafalgar Place.
- Headline rents of £28 psf have been achieved, but lack of supply could stifle further mid-term growth
- There has been significant growth in flexible membership workplace initiatives with offerings from Regus, Platf9rm and The Werks Group.
Agency Director Emma Hards said: “The office market in Brighton is strong with a real variety of occupiers looking for new space and/or expanding. There is a real lack of supply, especially of good quality space and if more were available there are the occupiers to take it! As a city it is important we look at ways to provide good quality space for occupiers in order to both keep existing business in the area and attract new business to Brighton.”
