Manchester Office Lettings in July 2019 Update

Recent research by Avison Young and MOAF reveals that Manchester city centre office activity reached 491,300 sq ft during Q2. The figure was 64% above the quarterly average and brings the year to date total to over 800,000 sq ft. Metropolis ran 40 business leads featuring companies relocating in the Manchester market in Q2 2019.

The largest move of the quarter involved Spaces agreeing the largest flexible workspace deal in the UK outside London, taking 122,000 sq ft at 125 Deansgate. It also understood that BT is close to taking a significant amount of space. Other large moves recently researched by Metropolis included relocations by Hewlett Packard, ME Group, Jones Lang Lasalle and BASF.

There is considerable activity from the flexible workspace sector as WeWork has signed for its fourth location in Manchester, 51,000 sq ft at Hyphen and there are more than half a dozen co-working operators looking for substantial amounts of space. Business services tends to dominate take-up in Manchester, accounting for a third of take-up.

Advertising and public relations company WPP have committed to 82,000 sq ft which will be constructed at Enterprise City, St John’s. Barclays expanded by 33,000 sq ft at Piccadilly Place. The largest deal in the out-of-town market was to telecommunications company Verastar, which has agreed a 61,000 sq ft deal at One Dovecoat in Sale. Marks & Spencer took 12,000 sq ft at the Alexandra, The Home Office taking 20,490 sq ft at the Soapworks and Capgemini taking 11,360 sq ft at Venus.

Looking ahead, Metropolis is monitoring almost 40 medium/large firms looking for space in Manchester, together with a further 70 tenants approaching lease expiries over the next two years.

There is 1.6 million sq ft of space under construction in Manchester, of which 38% is pre-let. Of the million sq ft of speculative space under construction, key developments include Landmark Oxford Road, 100 Embankment and Circle Square. Grade A remains in good stock with new developments such as 125 Deansgate and Landmark at St Peter’s Square due to complete in 2019. Between them they will bring 305,000 sq ft to the market, 133,000 sq ft of this currently under offer to new tenants.