With the Brexit cloud looming in the distance and causing both political and economic uncertainty for the UK, it is thought that this must surely have impacted the office uptake throughout the country. However, recent studies have found that that UK is still a desired place for investors and business owners to expand their businesses.
SavoyStewart.co.uk has recently conducted an analysis into reports by Knight Frank, exploring both the take up and investment volume in office space throughout the UK. The study was conducted using the following 10 major cities – London was not included in this 10: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.
Additionally, SavoyStewart.co.uk also analysed office-based businesses (436 to be exact), to find out the main factors businesses consider when searching for new offices. Price was excluded from these findings. The results found that the most common factor was location, with 84% of these businesses considering it a main factor.
The results showed from the 10 major cities, Manchester was found to have the highest office take up, increasing from 2017’s 1,218,892 square feet (sq. ft) to 2018’s 1,750,562 sq. ft. This showed that the city had an increase in office take up space by a remarkable 44% in one year.
Following the office take up space, the second category in these findings showed that Manchester was also the highest for office investment volume. SavoyStewart.co.uk’s results showed that the city’s investment volume increase by 8% in just one year – from 2017’s £917 million to 2018’s £989 million.
In contrast to this, Newcastle was found to have the lowest scores in both office take up space and investment volume. The city, although experiencing an increase of 33% in office take up space from one year, still came is as the lowest amount, going from 177,870 sq. ft to 236,928 sq. ft.
Newcastle also had the lowest office investment volume out of the 10 major cities, coming in at £62 million. However, like its office take up space, this was still a significant increase from the previous year’s investment volume, being £50 million. Therefore, although the lowest out of the 10 cities analysed, Newcastle still saw a 24% rise in investment volume. There has also been a reported increase in co-working spaces across the UK.
On a residential level, reports show the divide between north and south is narrowing. According to a director from MT Finance, there is an ‘increased ability to travel between the regions for work and it means that it may be possible to live in cheaper parts of the country. The appeal of greener pastures and a better standrd of living will mean those areas will go up in value.”
