Strong year for Leeds office take-up - LOAF

Strong year for Leeds office take-up - LOAF

Insider Media

23rd January 2020

Stephen Farrell

Leeds's recorded a healthy year for office take-up, with the city centre performing particularly strongly, according to figures from the Leeds Office Agents' Forum (LOAF).

The 2019 figures show occupier take-up in Leeds city centre reached a full year total of 743,192 sq ft, 12 per cent higher than the previous year.

In the final three months (Q4), city centre office take-up totalled 164,398 sq ft across 31 deals. Of this, there were three transactions of more than 10,000 sq ft in size, the largest of which was the letting to Sky of 31,000 sq ft at 26 Whitehall Road.

Ross Firth, from Cushman & Wakefield and LOAF spokesperson, said: "Despite demand particularly from tech, media and services sectors remaining robust, new city centre office development has remained low with the vacancy rate well below historic averages. This squeeze on supply, which is being seen in several regional cities, is putting upward pressure on city centre rents, with £32.50 per sq ft typically being quoted on the best space, but in some instances, we are seeing even higher.

"Based on known requirements and a potential post-Brexit bounce, the Forum believes the office market could see a further uptick in both rents and pre-letting activity in 2020."

A total of 84,483 sq ft of office space, across 28 deals, was transacted across the out-of-town market between October and December last year. The only two deals of more than 10,000 sq ft were at Thorpe Park, where Quorn took 10,580 sq ft at Aeris, 3200 Thorpe Park and 10,402 sq ft was leased to Birds Eye at 3100 Thorpe Park. In total, 280,524 sq ft was transacted across the year in the out-of-town market, a 30 per cent decrease compared to 2018 activity.

The Leeds Office Agents' Forum is made up of Avison Young, BNP Paribas, Bowcliffe, Carter Towler, Carter Jonas, CBRE, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield, Eddisons, Fox Lloyd Jones, JLL, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton, Ryden, Sanderson Weatherall, Savills and WSB