With transaction volumes up by almost 50% in the 12 months to the end of July, it would appear that Sheffield’s recovery is finally locked in.
Encouragingly, average deal sizes have increased despite a rise in the number of deals done, in contrast to most other parts of the UK.
Knight Frank sits at the top of the pile, having disposed of double the amount of space compared with 2014, despite a drop in deal numbers. It acted on the biggest single deal of the year: the sale of Velocity House to the University of Sheffield.
Sheffield Hallam University was involved in the second-biggest deal when it bought 20 Furnival Street, with Crosthwaite Commercial acting as the disposing agent.
BNP Paribas Real Estate’s six deals were enough to take it from outside last year’s top 10 up to second, while a renewed Fernie Greaves climbed to third.
Going up: Fernie Greaves
At the start of the 12 months covered by these figures, regional specialist Fernie Greaves appointed Knight Frank’s Tim Bottrill to the team and has since leapt up seven places in the table. The firm disposed of more than 50,000 sq ft in 20 deals. Key among these were the sale of commercial units at Urban Splash’s Park Hill redevelopment as well as two lettings to Sky Bet at Sheffield Digital Campus, where it acts alongside CPP. With two new buildings planned for the campus, the prospects look good for next year.
Going down: JLL
JLL may have taken the crown in the lucrative Leeds market (p97), but has this come at the cost of success in the region’s secondary cities? The evidence suggests so, with JLL managing no lettings and just one sale at Bells Court (for redevelopment as student accommodation) and therefore falling out of the top 10 from third place last year.
Click on the graphic below to see the full breakdown of the league table
