Metropolis Office Requirements – Q3 2014
October 30, 2014 Leave a comment
9.5m sq ft of demand
Our team here at Metropolis researched over 370 UK company office requirements in Q3 2014, representing 9.5m sq ft of office demand.
6m sq ft of this demand was for space in Greater London and 4.9m sq ft was demand for space in central London.
Demand for City of London space continued to be strong during Q3, with 2.4m sq ft required in over 60 planned relocations. Three of the top five largest requirements in the City were searches by technology and media companies. EC2 demand made up 37.5% of the total space required.
1.4m sq ft of demand was identified in the West End of London, split equally between requirements for space in London SW1 and W1. Again three of the top five largest requirements were searches by technology and media companies, with two significant searches by financial service sector companies identified.
Mid Town office demand was largely focused on London WC2, with 100,000 sq ft of the 300,000 sq ft required in this postcode attributed to media sector requirements.
Just over 0.6m sq ft of demand was researched in London’s Southbank, 200,000 sq ft of which was triggered by an energy company’s requirement for additional space in the area.
Similar to H1 results, the Banking & Finance sector is leading the demand for new UK offices, with 1.4m sq ft of requirements in the UK, just over 0.4m sq ft of which is sought in the City of London.
Requirements from media sector companies represented just over 1m sq ft of demand, a 300,000 sq ft requirement in London W1 significantly boosting this figure. Technology & Telecom sector requirements came a close third with 0.9m sq ft of demand. The law sector accounted for 0.8m sq ft of demand and the insurance sector 0.5m sq ft.
Simon Sluszny October 2014
Copyright Metropolis Property Research Ltd
Liverpool market surge
December 3, 2013 Leave a comment
A recent report by property consultant Knight Frank revealed an 82% surge in office take-up in Liverpool in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.
Metropolis figures suggest around 60 firms have found office space in Liverpool this year including the 34,000 sq ft let at Albert Dock by law firm Hampton Hughes and 30,000 sq ft by the local NHS trust. There are around 20 medium to large firms which have a current requirement for offices in the city and overall named requirements total over 250,000 sq ft.
Potential movers include BT which has just announced a 20% increase in staffing at its Lancaster House call centre and a clutch of companies approaching 2014 lease expiries.
Office projects by Capital & Centric, Merepark and Peel Group promise a new wave of grade A space from mid-2014 onwards, but local agents think more space is required to satisfy all searches, which is likely to increase the number of refurbishments.
Filed under CityOffices.net News, Market Comment Tagged with 2013, Liverpool, office market, offices, searches, sq ft