Partner Article

Office take-up hits 1m sq ft

Office lettings in Newcastle city centre and regional out-of-town locations totalled 258,982 sq ft in the final quarter of 2013, bringing the total for the year to over 1 million sq ft.

Chris Pearson, partner of Gavin Black & Partners and a member of the Offices Group which works together to provide the statistics, said: “To break through this milestone with 1,003,393 sq ft let during the year is significant and shows the Newcastle and the region are both attractive locations for occupiers.

“The last quarter showed 70,779 sq ft let in Newcastle city centre and 188,203 sq ft out-of-town, a figure boosted by the Newcastle NHS Trust’s purchase of Regent Point at Gosforth’s Regent Centre.”

Pearson added: “It is not unusual to have one-off deals. The key is to look at the year overall and given the improvement in the national economy we are seeing gradually improving sentiment in the North East.”

Aidan Baker, director, office agency, BNP Paribas Real Estate, says 2013 continued to experience improvement in market conditions resulting in the best year since 2008 for grade A city centre take-up. This culminated in the letting of 34,865 sq ft at East Quay 5 to Barclays Plc.

Baker said: “We strongly believe 2014 is likely to see market conditions continue to improve with a further increase in office enquiries. As a result I anticipate the first quarters of 2014 will see the upbeat market conditions continuing.

“The over-riding concern is the lack of development pipeline activity in the city centre. There is only one new build scheme on site, Silverlink’s Stephenson Quarter. The timing for this could be very good indeed as it will be for Hermes ‘The Pearl’ redevelopment but overall as the economy improves Newcastle City Centre could be faced with very limited supply of Grade A space going forward.”

The Offices Group statistics exclude short-term lettings in serviced accommodation, a sector that has also been particularly active in 2013.

The Offices Group comprises BNP Paribas Real Estate, Bradley Hall, DTZ, Gavin Black & Partners, GVA, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton, Naylors Chartered Surveyors, Sanderson Weatherall, Storeys Edward Symmons.

Take-up analysis for 2013 (sq ft)

Newcastle City Centre

Q1 44,124

Q2 56,949

Q3 75,324

Q4 70,779

T: 247,176

Out of town

Q1 263,318

Q2 201,949

Q3 102,747

Q4 188,203

T: 756,217

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Dobson .