Office take-up in Manchester city centre dived to 75,995 sq ft in Q2, down from 309,212 sq ft in the previous quarter, as Covid-19 hit the market.
The latest figures from the Manchester Office Agents Forum show that 20 transactions took place during Q2, down from 58 the previous quarter. All transactions made in Q2 were under 15,000 sq ft.
However, over in Salford Quays and Old Trafford, take-up increased to 77,030 sq ft from 51,670 sq ft in Q1. Transactions included USDAW buying the 38,943 sq ft Voyager office building and Marlowe Fire & Security taking 25,568 sq ft at 5 Central Park.
South Manchester saw take-up plummet to 59,972 sq ft, down from the quarterly average of 154,000 sq ft.
Speaking on behalf of MOAF, John Nash, director at Canning O’Neill, commented: “There is no disguising the fact that take-up in Q2 was low, but I don’t think we could have expected anything else with the country having been in lockdown for the best part of three months.
“However, we can take encouragement from the fact that almost half of the city centre take-up was recorded in June with deals that would most likely have been instructed pre-Covid, so confidence has not been fully eroded.”
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