COMMERCIAL property specialist Knight Frank is closing its Liverpool office and axing jobs both here and in Manchester.

The move reflects the current depressed market, but does not herald a repeat of the mid-90s recession when a raft of professional services pulled out of Liverpool and retrenched to Manchester, insist property and business experts.

Knight Frank said the closure follows a strategic restructuring which will see nine Liverpool staff based in Exchange Flags’ Horton House relocate to Manchester.

Several redundancies will affect both centres, however, it is believed Manchester will bear the brunt.

Knight Frank head of North West commercial, David Porter, said: “This strategic review of our services will enable us to refocus our commitment to Merseyside. By consolidating the two offices we will strengthen our North West offering.

The company set up in Liverpool in 2004 and expanded to bigger offices in Horton House in 2007. Stuart Keppie, of Liverpool property consultants Keppie Massie, said the city’s office sector has been flat for at least two years: “The commercial market has been a huge challenge and Knight Frank’s circumstances reflect the market situation and is indicative of the difficult times we are experiencing in the current market.”

He also sees no improvement, particularly in the supply of new office space: “ There is a lack of investment in new opportunities, which are needed, down to the availability of funding. I don’t see any new developments in the immediate future, and that is over the next three or more years.”

However, Mark Chadwick, chief executive of professional services group Liverpool City Region, remains positive: “To suggest that this ‘singular’ move is symptomatic of a wholesale retrenching experienced in previous years is premature.

“We have moved on significantly since the 1990’s and are better placed to cope with the aftershocks of the downturn than ever before, but we must do more to proactively drive the market.”