After three years of steady growth, the Edinburgh office market takes a dip, with a 22% drop in disposed space over the past year.
Despite a good showing from Ryden this year, JLL wasn’t dislodged from the top spot in EG’s Edinburgh Office League Table, having been involved with 28% of the total space disposed.
Overall deal numbers and total space transacted was down year on year. JLL acted on 31 deals totalling 210,782 sq ft – a drop of more than 25% in the number of transactions compared with the previous year. This was still enough to fend off Ryden, which climbed four places to take second spot.
Ryden more than doubled the amount of space let in the 12-month qualifying period, from 27 deals and 88,697 sq ft in 2015/16 to 35 deals and 200,509 sq ft in 2016/17.
The market’s other big riser was Eric Young & Co, which came in third – up from the previous year’s fifth place, although somewhat behind the top two – with 128,995 sq ft disposed across 20 deals.
The largest deal this year was the University of Edinburgh’s letting of 60,000 sq ft at Telereal Trillium’s Argyle House on Lady Lawson Street, on which JLL and Cuthbert White advised. Without this deal for JLL, Ryden would have topped the table.
Overall, deal numbers dropped to 132 (year to end of February 2017) from 184 for the same period in 2016 and space disposed at 744,857 sq ft was the lowest since the 2013 league table.
Going Up
Ryden was the biggest climber, doubling the amount of space it let, which took it up four places to second spot.
Going Down
Montagu Evans dropped from last year’s second place to seventh this year, with only 25% of its previous total of 286,414 sq ft let this year – a total of 71,181 sq ft.
Key stats
- Total space disposed: 744,857 sq ft, down 22% on 955,660 sq ft last year.
- Average deal size: 5,643 sq ft up 8% on 5,194 sq ft
- Deal numbers were down 28% on last year
- Top 10 agents accounted for 97% of take-up; up 5% on last year
Edinburgh Office League Table – disposals 01 March 2016 to 28 February 2017
| Agent | Total space disposed (sq ft) | Number of deals | Average deal size (sq ft) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | JLL | 210,782 | 31 | 6,799 |
| 2 (6) | Ryden | 200,509 | 35 | 5,729 |
| 3 (5) | Eric Young & Co | 128,995 | 20 | 6,450 |
| 4 (4) | Cuthbert White | 122,796 | 16 | 7,675 |
| 5 (3) | CBRE | 108,399 | 12 | 9,033 |
| 6 (7) | Knight Frank | 105,827 | 13 | 8,141 |
| 7 (2) | Montagu Evans | 71,181 | 9 | 7,909 |
| 8 (9) | GVA | 52,722 | 7 | 7,532 |
| 9 (-) | Savills | 45,671 | 4 | 11,418 |
| 10 (8) | Cushamn & Wakefield | 38,894 | 8 | 4,862 |
| TOTAL (including duplication from joint agents) | 1,085,776 | 155 | 7,005 | |
| Overall from top 10 (minus duplication) | 724,572 | 115 | 6,301 | |
| Overall, including all deals in the area (minus duplication) | 744,857 | 132 | 5,643 |
Source: EGi Research. Last year’s position in brackets. The table covers disposals in Edinburgh (EH1, EH2, EH3, EH8, and EH12. Occupational sales and lettings are included (not investment sale). Joint agency deals are related to both agents.
