Cornish firm of Chartered Surveyors continue to make regional impact

Mike Nightingale, Partner & overall Head of Agency matters at Miller Commercial

Recent figures published by the commercial property industry’s magazine Estates Gazette show that during 2015 Miller Commercial Chartered Surveyors continue to carry out more deals in the South West than some national and international agencies.

The south-west is defined by the Estates Gazette (EGi) this competition as an area including Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset, Avon, Devon and Cornwall.

EGi statisticians crunched the numbers and calculated the rankings based purely on deals volumes across all property types over the last year.

Miller Commercial have been recognised and ranked among the top 5 agencies for the number of transactions in the Retail, Industrial and Hotel and Leisure sectors.

Partner at Miller Commercial, Peter Heather says “The sheer volume of transactions that we conduct both within Cornwall and more recently in Devon, is continuing to register on the wider regional basis, incorporating major cities and urban areas.

We have always had a strong presence in retail and industrial property, and this is probably a by-product of the amount of Property Management work we undertake on behalf of clients throughout the south-west. We are expanding our activities in the growth of investment consultancy and strategic development advice, and therefore hope to gain representation in the sector next year as we have seen a large percentage increase in the volume of investment transactions undertaken in the last 12 months, including the £8.1 million acquisition of Maritime House; student accommodation in Falmouth.

There has also been an increase in leisure orientated businesses coming to the market after a lengthy period in the doldrums for business transfer properties throughout the recession.

The South West in general, and more specifically Cornwall and Devon are increasingly the ‘go to’ locations for savvy employers seeking to be part of the reverse drain brain. Only the lack of speculative development, particularly industrially is sporting the speed of change in this area as we see more and more residential development take place.