Derby’s property market remained resilient throughout the first half of 2019 despite continued political uncertainty, according to a mid-year commercial property review by Innes England.
The company, which monitors trends in the regional property market across Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, has presented a mid-year update of its annual Market Insite report for the first time, focussing on the office, industrial and logistic sectors.
Nick Hosking, director at Innes England, who presented the findings at a special event at Toyota’s Burnaston plant on Friday 20 September said: “The last 18 months have shown a familiar pattern; quality stock remains in short supply and that has helped office and industrial values remain resilient.
“The industrial sector was the standout performer last year and remains solid for the first half of 2019. While uncertainty around Brexit has led to fewer deals overall, total industrial take-up has increased. We’ve seen some sizeable regional deals in the first half of this year, the largest of which was VF Corporation taking a 578,000 sq ft warehouse at Mountpark Bardon.
“Availability of stock continues to be a challenge locally, especially for mid-box industrial, but there’s new space in the development pipeline at Trebor’s Mega Park and St Modwen Park, Derby.”
City centre regeneration remains a key theme across the region in 2019. Nottingham’s Southside continues to make progress, and developer St James Securities has submitted an outline planning application for a high quality new public square and 342 build to rent apartments for the first phase of Derby’s Becketwell redevelopment. Plans also include a range of other complementary uses for the site, including up to 25,000 sq m of new grade A offices.
Nick added: “St James Securities’ planning application for the £200m regeneration of the former Debenhams building and surrounding sites could be transformational for Derby city centre and kick start the next phase of the city’s regeneration.
“Office take-up in Derby has improved but remains below the 10-year average. One of the more notable deals in the first half of 2019 was global engineering consultancy Alten opening a new headquarters on Pride Park.
“Despite the uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations, the region is performing surprisingly well and we would expect to see a positive trend across the East Midlands property market for the rest of the year.”
