The Big Nine - Quarterly review of the regional office occupier markets - Q4 2015

The regional office markets have continued to improve on last year’s record levels of occupational take-up, with 9.6 million sq ft transacted in the big nine city centre and out-of-town markets during 2015. This is 20% above the five year average.

The final quarter of 2015 headlined with 150,000 sq ft let to the BBC in Cardiff, 100,000 sq ft let to SKY at Leeds Dock and over 100,000 sq ft of deals on Edinburgh Park – demonstrating the returning strength of the out of town markets. With this strong demand and continued tight levels of grade A supply in the city centre markets, we have witnessed a 10% increase in net effective headline rents over the last year.

With the financing of new speculative development proving to be a significant challenge in the regional city centres this continued high level of demand, and the re-emphasised focus on regional offices presents a significant opportunity for those able to piece together the development jigsaw.