The Sheffield office market has performed strongly through Q2 2018 with more than 105,000 sq ft of deals meaning that the first half of 2018 has witnessed higher than average demand.
With office take up totalling more than 200,000 sq ft for H1 2018, Knight Frank’s Sheffield office expects the year to outperform the ten-year average annual take up of 300,000 sq ft and the team has been instrumental in half of the transactions making them one of the most active agents in South Yorkshire.
The figures, released by Sheffield’s economic development agency, Invest Sheffield, shows that the city had more office transactions than Q1 of 2018, which totalled 94,000 sq ft transacted, but both quarters exceeded the 75,000 sq ft ten-year average.
Ben White, associate at the Sheffield office of Knight Frank, said: “This is another strong performance for the commercial property market in Sheffield and shows that demand for quality accommodation in the city remains high.
“Sheffield has now proven to deliver a good, competitive cost base in comparison to other key regional cities, with two universities providing quality staff and the city also returns a great standard of living, which is attractive to potential tenants, their staff and investors.
“We are continuing to see a shortage of quality office stock due to the levels of demand, partly driven by Sheffield’s location and value, but also the city’s ongoing levels of central development, its broader transport infrastructure and its potential for future generations.
“These levels of market activity are unlikely to slow down for any reasons that we can forsee, other than the availability of quality space, and although there is development in the pipeline, it is some way off realisation.”
Notable deals for Q2 of 2018 include South Yorkshire Housing Association taking 25,000 sq ft at Rockingham Court, TES Global taking 16,000 sq ft at 3 St Paul’s Place in a North-shoring exercise, 10,000 sq ft taken by British Business Bank at Steel City House in an expansion and Capgemini and GMB Union taking 3,750 sq ft each at ARBA Group’s Meadowhall Business Park.