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London firms eyeing up Manchester bolsters positive outlook for city’s office market

Strong demand and a steady pipeline are contributing to the continued boom in Manchester’s Grade A office space market with take-up set to exceed 1m sq ft for the fourth year running.

According to real estate advisors Colliers International, healthy leasing activity across Manchester’s office market this year and a stacked pipeline of enquiries for H2 hint that the sector is on course for another impressive year.

In particular, the firm said that a string of London-based businesses are helping to further boost the market with the likes of law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer taking 80,484 sq ft at One New Bailey in Salford, and coworking brand WeWork announcing plans for their first non-London location in the UK at No1 Spinningfields part of a general tilt towards the North West city.

Meanwhile, Manchester’s thriving tech scene is playing a defining role in the market’s performance with Colliers claiming that 40% of all new enquiries in the city centre coming from technology businesses.

Access to Grade A space in the city’s core remains stretched, however, with just 230,000 sq ft available centrally and many projects in the pipeline already pre-let.

Despite this, Peter Gallagher, director, national offices at the Manchester office of Colliers International, believes the outlook is good for the market and pointed to a welter of rent reviews coming up which could free up more space.

He said: “Over the next two years there are at least 1.2m sq ft of lease events for more than 3,000 sq ft and a further 1.12 million sq ft facing three or five-year rent review.

“Given the strong pipeline of enquiries and the prospect of several London-based occupiers looking to set up offices in Manchester to cut costs, the outlook for the rest of 2017 looks positive with take-up set to exceed 1 million sq ft for fourth year in a row.”