CBRE releases Birmingham office market report

Since the first half of the year take up in the Central Birmingham Office Market has reached a total of 298,800 sq ft. This is a marked increase since the same period in 2009 when office take up was at 197,100 sq ft in the city.

With prime rents in Birmingham remaining steady at £27.00 per sq ft, it is a good time to move office to Birmingham. Significant office leasing deals have been made since the first half of 2010, with six major agreements garnering £231.5 million alone, representing the strength the Birmingham office market has to recover post-recession.

Prime yield for the city has levelled out over the course of the first half of 2010, settling at a stable 5.75 percent.  Overall, the availability of work space in Birmingham reached 2.6 million sq ft by the close of the second quarter. 

Managing Director of CBRE’s Birmingham branch Martin Guest commented on the figures, “The total take up for the six months to June is ahead of the comparative period in 2009 of 197,000 sq ft. However, there are no major enquiries or deals on the horizon, so it’s doubtful that this year’s take-up will outpace the previous year’s.”

Guest also passed comment on the sale of One Snowhill, saying, “This is an impressive turnaround given that, before the recession, doubts had been expressed over the attractiveness of regional stock and the number of buyers in the market for large lot sizes.”