UK's office take-up market dips 3% in Q2 due to Brexit jitters

18 July 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal

Office take-up across the ‘big nine’ office markets during the second quarter was 3 per cent below the five-year quarterly average for both the city centre and out-of-town, according to data from Bilfinger GVA.

 

In the city centre markets there were a number of sizeable deals agreed this quarter, with Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham recording well above average take-up. Conversely, other city centres saw some slowing in activity, as was expected in the run-up to the referendum.

 

Overall take-up figures have held up reasonably well during the second quarter of the year in spite of the referendum uncertainty.

 

Some significant deals have completed in the public and insurance sectors and underlying demand across the nine – Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh and Cardiff – remains strong, particularly given the reorganisation of the public sector estate and a large number of private sector lease events.

 

Carl Potter, national head of offices at Bilfinger GVA, said: “Some occupiers have been reviewing their position in light of Brexit and it is likely that this will impact on take-up for the second half of the year, but it is too early to judge how significant this will be. We expect any impacts on the value of grade A stock to be insulated by the subdued development pipeline.”