LIVERPOOL currently has around 500,000 sq ft of Grade A or high-quality refurbished office space under construction, according to a new study.
GVA Grimley’s latest regional city centre office markets report (spring, 2010) says the figure equates to 35% of all UK development.
This is a significant increase on the 140,000 sq ft figure from December, 2008.
The report claims that, over the next three years, 775,000 sq ft will become available across a number of new-build or refurbishment schemes.
GVA Grimley’s report examines the demand and supply balance for Grade A space and the expected development pipeline over the next three years in nine of the UK’s key city centre office markets.
Liverpool recorded the second-highest level of Grade A office take-up over the last five years, just behind Manchester.
The city’s Grade A take- up was 404,000 sq ft in 2009, the second highest of the nine cities featured in the report.
This figure is distorted somewhat by two very large transactions. The UK Border Agency took 223,000 sq ft at the Capital and Merseytravel took 140,000 sq ft at Mann Island – two transactions that accounted for 90% of the total take-up.
In contrast to most of the other key regional centres, Grade A availability in Liverpool decreased during 2009, with a fall of 13% in immediately available space over the year, to 379,000 sq ft.
Key schemes currently available include UK Land and Pochin’s Walker House, Rumford Investments’ 20 Chapel Street and Standard Life’s 5 St Paul’s Square.
GVA Grimley also reports that prime rents stand at £21 per sq ft and yields dropped from 7.5% in December 2008, to 7% in December 2009.
Ian Steele, director at GVA Grimley commented: “Despite there being a healthy level of Grade A take-up during 2009, this was dominated by two large transactions, but, in overall terms, there was a significant reduction in the number of transactions completed.
“However, there is likely to be a vast improvement in transactional activity during 2010, as there is already an increase in the number of occupiers who are actively looking to take space.”
