Tim Davis, Head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Bristol office gives his thoughts on the year ahead:
“Bristol’s varied economic drivers suggest it should bounce back from the current economic downturn quicker than other regional cities.
“Logistics and retail sectors are increasingly linked as the growth of e-commerce continues accelerated by Covid-19. The buoyant former is set be strong, while the latter is still looking for solid ground, with more CVAs likely post-Christmas. Retail will need to focus ever more on the customer experience in physical shops, with future placemaking and mixed-uses in our town centres essential.
“In the office sector, the way we work has changed forever with increasing agility. However, although occupiers may reduce space occupied there is a ‘flight to quality’ and Bristol has one of the highest quality pipelines in the UK with delivery of outstanding buildings from Q4 2021. Coupled with this, we remain one of the UK’s tech powerhouses with a very strong demographic. All good indicators for a strong and growing city in 2021.
“The public sector will continue to facilitate market activity, particularly in the residential sector, with Homes England, WECA and local authorities needed to play a part. The impressive growth of the University of Bristol will feed the need for further purpose-built student accommodation, although the current development pipeline lags well behind demand, creating further pressure on rental growth in the short-term. Moreover, we anticipate further mixed-use schemes coming forward in 2021 with scalable Build-to-Rent product, as the much-needed development pipeline continues to grow. 2021 should see the largest release of new product with around 495 apartments due to open.”