Going Up ... Why The Birmingham Office Market Is Due A Post-Brexit Bounce

Tumbleweed isn't exactly blowing down Colmore Row, but the most recent Birmingham office market take-up data suggested Q3 was a shade disappointing. Take-up was just 159K SF.

Now comes a more cheering analysis of the Birmingham office scene from KWB, which predicts the market will spike in 2019 and 2020 as post-Brexit certainty gives the market back its bounce.

They key to their optimism is that 2019 marks the fifth anniversay of one of Birmingham's best years for office deals, 2014.

In 2014 there were 148 deals, prompting hopes that many occupiers will grab the chance offered by a quinquennial lease-event and move to new premises. Meanwhile KWB say some big deals, now hovering over the market in a pre-Brexit holding pattern, will land in the new year.

“Lack of availability of office space, Brexit and the impact of serviced office operators are all having a quietening effect on the Birmingham office market figures this year, but we predict that a large number of lease events, new office space becoming available and a Brexit resolution will all have a positive impact on the office market in 2019 and 2020,” KWB Head of Office Agency Malcolm Jones said.

“Although a proportion has already been taken in pre-lets, some 1.8M SF of new office space is due to [be] completed in Birmingham city centre in the next two years. This will provide more choice for larger occupiers, particularly those looking to move into the city, and, once the Brexit position finally becomes clear, for more private sector occupiers who have been waiting for some certainty."

The full KWB analysis can be found here.