Take-up in the Bristol office market outperformed the quarterly average in quarter one this year, figures just released show. Over 115,000 sq ft of deals were recorded over the last three months, compared to the five-year quarterly average of 109,389 sq ft, according to the Big Nine report, the latest regional office market report by GVA, the UK’s leading independent commercial property adviser.
Total office take-up across all nine regional cities studied in the report performed strongly, at 7% above the five-year average, with both city-centre and out-of-town office take-up continuing to rebound across the board. Bristol’s take-up also performed strongly in the out-of-town market, with 108,241 sq ft, compared to the five-year quarterly average of 71,052 sq ft.
The first quarter of the year is traditionally the period with the least activity, so the figures are encouraging, continuing the upward trend seen in 2013. Richard Kidd, Director of Office Agency at GVA in Bristol commented: “It is great to see that, after such a strong rebound in 2013, there is little sign that the positive sentiment is set to abate. The economic conditions for growth are right, business confidence is high, and the employment market is recovering well, so it is great to see that the UK’s Big Nine cities are all thriving and continuing to push ahead, particularly in Bristol.
“However, we could now be entering into a period where, due to the development lag, the constraint of a shortfall in Grade A availability could impede take up and provide a limiter on growth in the medium term. We expect to see a return to rental growth in the next 12-18 months, and we have already been seeing incentive packages start to be eroded.”
“In Bristol, office to residential change of use is gathering pace with the renewed confidence in the housing market. Bristol has seen the third highest number of private rented sector applications after London and Brighton. Of the 1.9 million sq ft of office availability in Bristol city centre, over half has a change of use application, the majority of which is to residential.”
