Even though the start of 2013 began extremely slow, enquiries for commercial property in Birmingham has picked up, according to recent research from consultancy firm GVA.
The report highlights that both requirements and enquiries have seen a rise over the first three months of the year, with greater interest and confidence coming from both investors and developers within the region.
The figures show that take-up of office space in the first quarter was 19 per cent above the usual average. This is a combination of city-centre take-up, which was nine per cent higher than the usual quarterly average, totalling 1.1 million sq ft, and the markets out of the centre, which not only stood at 820,684 sq ft, but was 37 per cent higher than the usual average in this first quarter.
Carl Potter, director and head of national offices at GVA, said: “Deals are still taking time to get over the line and the backbone of activity consists of a churn of secondary stock below 5,000 sq ft. On the other hand, there is a healthy number of large Grade A requirements and the time frame on many of these is shortening as lease event dates creep up with the best space in tight supply.”
This news is in conjunction with recent reports that Grade A office stock in the city has fallen to a five-year low, according to research by Colliers International. The market may had been declining by a rate of nine per cent in the past five years, after the global financial crisis hit, but now the Colliers report suggests that there is only 891,000 sq ft of vacant office space left in the city.
Analysts have highlighted that even though the rise of commercial enquiries is a positive thing, there are fears that office stock may dwindle even further in the next year.