Optimism in Leics office market says Innes England

Leicester’s office market is taking a turn for the better according to commercial property consultant, Innes England, following a trio of lets at De Montfort Mews.

The firm has negotiated deals with three new tenants on behalf of landlord, Glenstone Property, for the 950 sq ft city centre office units.

P3, a charity which works with vulnerable and homeless people across the UK, will open its first Leicester premises at 5 De Montfort Mews. A deal has also been secured for earth science consultancy, Geoscience Ltd to occupy number 6.

Innes England also let number 7 to Sofia Illumini, which will teach children core subjects including maths and science from September 2014.

Andrew Regan, communications manager at P3, said: “We have moved into Leicester following interest from the city council in our services, and to us it seemed like a natural development.

“We will be offering our navigator service, which will allow vulnerable people to drop in and speak to our team about any issues they might have surrounding housing. We quickly realised that you can give a homeless person a bed, but it doesn’t help to prevent homelessness in the first place, which is what we aim to do with our services.”

Also new to the city is Sofia Illumini, a teaching centre run by Leicester university graduate, Radoslav Shalliev.

He said: “I really like the area around De Montfort Mews, it is close to New Walk, and the property is perfect for a tuition centre with classroom space, toilets and so on.

“We were planning to just teach GCSE maths, but we have had a lot of enquiries so are going to be starting science too from September.”

The deals were all handled by Lewis Smith, surveyor at Innes England, who believes the trio are illustrative of the improving office market in the city.

He said: “All three of these office spaces were let within a short space of time having been on the market for some time. Whilst the overall city centre office market is yet to show growth of any substantial pace, the second-hand market has been stable for some time and these lettings are illustrative of a healthy part of the market.

“We are seeing sustained interest in suites such as these and the number of enquiries we receive is increasing all the time.”