Take-up in Bristol’s city centre for Q4 2016 exceeded expectations with a total figure of 267,239 sq ft, as reported by the Office Agents Society. Activity during the final quarter of the year was boosted by the completion of Salmon Harvestor’s deal to HMRC at 3 Glass Wharf for 107,000 sq ft, as well as several other lettings over 10,000 sq ft.
The out of town market also benefited from robust activity in the final quarter, with a total of 110,949 sq ft being transacted. Two deals of circa 30,000 sq ft at 100 Bristol Business Park, to Babcock, and 930 Aztec West to Highways England, helped to boost this with the rest of the completed deals being less than 10,000 sq ft.
These high levels of take-up bring the city centre total for 2016 to 782,938 sq ft, which is well above the five year average. The out of town market totals 308,380 sq ft for 2016 which is in line with the five year average.
This brings the annual total take up for Greater Bristol to 1,091,318 sq ft. This is above both the five and ten year averages, indicating that despite a year of uncertainty, the Bristol office market has performed well and demand remains strong.
Tom Dugay of Alder King commented: ‘Bristol’s office market performed strongly during 2016, recording its second best level of take-up since 2007, boosted by several large city centre deals. The year got off to a good start with the 81,000 sq ft letting at Bridgewater House to EDF Energy and finished strongly with the largest letting in Bristol for 9 years with HMRC pre-letting 107,000 sq ft at 3 Glass Wharf.’
BNP Paribas Real Estate’s Richard Ford added: ‘After a successful 2016, prospects for the office market in Bristol in 2017 appear very positive. Grade A supply is extremely limited and investors are seeking to take advantage of current conditions by way of refurbishing existing stock. This is good news for the broad range of occupational requirements in the city. We anticipate both rental increases in both in and out-of-town markets over the next 12 months and conditions which will justify speculative development.’