Cushman & Wakefield recently presented its Leeds Property Outlook for 2017 and beyond following a year of unprecedented economic and political change.
The breakfast presentation, held at the Met Hotel in Leeds city centre, revealed that the commercial property market in the region has largely shrugged off the issue of Brexit.
Elisabeth Troni, Head of EMEA Research & Insight at Cushman & Wakefield began the event with a keynote presentation on the impact of Brexit on the real estate market.
She revealed that Leeds is the only region in the UK to offer Fair Value across all commercial property sectors.
“In particular, the concentration of highly skilled, knowledge based employment across the region underlines its enduring growth potential” said Elisabeth Troni.
This was followed by a discussion on some of the key hot topics facing the property industry including the future of working and shopping trends against a backdrop of technological change.
She said: “We predict that automation will have a larger impact on the future of UK work and jobs than Brexit. Cushman & Wakefield believe this will limit the impact of north shoring benefits to the West Yorkshire conurbation, but should drive growth in high skilled industries concentrated in city centres.”
Head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Leeds office Keith Hardman believes Leeds is perfectly placed to capitalise on this concentration though the opportunity to double the size of the city centre in the South Bank – unparalleled in the UK – underlines the competitive strength of Leeds and its appeal as a centre for sustained growth and investment.
On automation Hardman commented that labour costs will become increasingly irrelevant to some manufacturing sectors and with the case for “onshoring” will intensify. Access to supply chains and consumer markets will be key priorities – lying at the geographic centre of the UK the Yorkshire region is again well placed to take advantage of this.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Leeds sector specialists then discussed the outlook for Yorkshire’s commercial property and the opportunities ahead.
Adam Cockroft, Partner in the Office agency team, commented on the city’s office market: “Flexibility will be the key going forward on all fronts in embracing the needs and wants of millennials who will represent 75% of the workforce by 2025.”
Scott Morrison, Associate in the National Industrial & Logistics team commented: “We are seeing a number of the major retailers, e-tailers and 3PL’s consolidating their operations into larger warehouses to respond to the changing dynamics of the retail and logistics market, as end consumers look to access products as quickly as possible. There is a shift towards occupiers taking larger strategically located warehouses and also smaller urban hubs to address the challenges of providing last mile logistics. Technology is having a major impact on the logistics sector which is likely to require a flexible approach for occupiers going forward.”
Commenting on the outlook for investors, Greg Davison, Partner in the Investment team said: “The real opportunity to maximize returns lie in those areas of the market that are most likely to be affected by the changes we face to the way in which we use real estate a society. As these trends are likely to be fluid, creating product that is flexible and adaptable will be the key to success, but with so many unknowns, the emphasis has to be on getting the pricing right on the way in.”
Completing the presentations, Phil Roebuck, Partner in the Residential team commented that fundamental changes in the housing market were required to meet current and future need. More choice and flexibility in terms of delivery vehicles and tenure is the way forward and he identified the build-to-rent sector as the next big opportunity in Yorkshire.
