A new record rent has been set for the Manchester city centre office market, but take-up has fallen since record-breaking rates hit in 2018, new research shows.
JLL’s move to Landmark, which EG revealed last year, set a new record rent of £36.50 per square foot.
According to the Manchester Office Agents Forum, more than 1.45m sq ft of workspace was let across the city centre in 2019, down from 1.75m sq in ft 2018.
This is still, however, above the five-year average of 1.35m sq ft.
The largest deal of the year was Spaces securing 121,000 sq ft at 125 Deansgate, taking up the whole building.
Notable transactions of the year included WPP signing for 82,000 sq ft at the Globe & Simpson building at Enterprise City, as well as Eversheds Sutherland and BLM signing for 47,465 sq ft and 70,782 sq ft respectively.
South Manchester saw 253 transactions, totalling 594,490 sq ft, struck over the year.
The biggest deal was PortSwigger preletting 62,000 sq ft at Booths Park, Knutsford, followed by Verastar’s acquisition of the 61,000 sq ft Dovecote building in Sale.
Another notable transaction was BASF committing to 21,434 sq ft in Muse/Stockport Council’s new development 2 Stockport Exchange, which EG revealed last year.
Richard Lace, OBI and Rob Yates, Cushman & Wakefield, joint representatives for MOAF, said: “Manchester’s office market continued to perform robustly despite the political uncertainty and a diminishing lack of readily available grade-A supply.
“As we move into 2020, with a strong supply of new development delivering high quality workspace to the market and a more stable economic backdrop, we expect a strong start to the year with a number of high-profile transactions in the pipeline.”
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