Knight Frank has made it three years in a row at the top of the Radius Data Exchange Newcastle office disposals league table in what remain testing conditions for the city.
It achieved the feat through sheer persistence after acting on more deals than anyone else. But despite acting on seven more deals than it did the previous year, it disposed of 6,000 sq ft less space, causing its average deal size to slip by almost a third.
Although overall transacted space increased to 302,746 sq ft, this included a 63,500 sq ft letting to HM Courts & Tribunal Service at the Civic Centre which was done directly by the council (Avison Young acquired), meaning agent-led disposals were actually down on last year.
Other than the Civic Centre deal, the only letting to break the 10,000 sq ft mark was a 16,500 sq ft prelet to Sumo Group at Gateshead Council’s Riga building in the Baltic Quarter, with BNP Paribas Real Estate acting for the landlord and Gavin Black the lessee’s agent.
Newcastle has suffered from national economic uncertainty and has also seen a large amount of office space converted to student resi in recent years, meaning stock is in short supply.
