Birmingham city centre office market round-up

• End-of-year take-up in Birmingham city centre is forecast to exceed 1 million sq ft, resulting in Birmingham’s strongest year ever.

• During the first three quarters of 2019 Take-up in Birmingham city centre reached 675,202 sq ft, 81% of this was considered to meet Grade A standards and of that 22% (122,420 sq ft) was Prime Grade A – the highest standard office space in Birmingham city centre.

• Take-up has increased 44% from Q1-Q3 2018. A Variety of business sectors have taken space so far this year with significant activity from Serviced Offices (34%), Public Services, Education & Health (20%) and Business & Consumer Services (13%).

• Total availability in Birmingham city centre currently sits at 2.5 million sq ft, an 8% increase since the end of 2018.

• Prime Grade A availability totals 645,000 sq ft. The addition of Three Snowhill and 2 Chamberlain Square, which are both due to reach practical completion this quarter, has seen Prime Grade A supply in Birmingham city centre increase by 602,000 sq ft.

• Savills expects Birmingham will achieve rents of £34.50 per sq ft in the city centre by the end of 2019 moving up to £35 per sq ft during 2020 and £36 per sq ft in 2021.

• Investment volumes for Birmingham city centre offices in 2019 are expected to be marginally in excess of the 10 year average of £400m. This level of activity is representative of the continued attractiveness of Birmingham to investors due to its strong underlying fundamentals. 2019 has seen a broad range of investors acquire strategic holdings within the city including UK institutions, overseas capital and property companies.

• Transactional volumes currently stand at £367m which includes a flurry of deals that have already been completed in Q4; 60 Church Street (£16.84m), 120 Edmund Street (£48.75m) and 45 Church Street (£61m). Q4 deals will make up approximately 40% of 2019 total transactional volume.

What makes Birmingham?

Over recent years, there has been an incredible change to Birmingham – including the opening of Europe’s largest library and the £600 million redevelopment of New Street station. Birmingham’s reputation as a tech hub is growing with tech firms boosting the economy by £2.3 billion every year.