Bristol is on course for its best take up of city centre office space since 2007, according to property consultants Knight Frank.
Commenting on the latest figures released for Quarter 3 (Q3) of 2014, Andy Smith, associate in the offices team of Knight Frank in Bristol, said: “Every quarter this year has been above the five-year average and, with out-of-town take up also set to be the highest since 2010, I believe there is a very real prospect of Greater Bristol breaking the 1 million sq ft barrier for office take up for 2014.”
During the third quarter, office take up in Bristol city centre reached 140,273 sq ft, bringing take up for the year to date to 435,623 sq ft — with a further 200,000 sq ft known to be under offer and scheduled to sign in Q4.
Andy said: “In the city centre there has been a definite shift away from transactions in the budget sector which dominated the first half of the year, and I anticipate that increased Grade A take up will dominate the Q4 figures.”
In the out-of-town market, Q3 take up at 118,075 sq ft was also an improvement on each of the preceding two quarters and the highest quarterly take up since Q2 2010. Take up to the end of Q3 reached 338,027 sq ft, already exceeding the total take up in each of 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Andy Smith said: “There was just one out of town Grade A deal in Q3. This lack of Grade A take up can be partly explained by the near absence of such space on the market with no speculative development currently ongoing or imminent.”
Looking ahead to the final quarter, Andy said that lack of availability in the city centre and loss of stock through office-to-residential conversions had begun to have an impact, with a tightening of incentives and, in a few instances, an increase in quoting terms.