Sheffield came within a hair’s breadth of its biggest upset since Nick Clegg lost his seat, as Commercial Property Partners pushed perennial table topper Knight Frank right to the wire in this year’s office disposal rankings.
Just 2,000 sq ft separated the relative newcomer CPP – formed in 2013 – and Knight Frank, which has topped the Steel City office table every year since records began. CPP more than doubled last year’s combined transacted space, helped by 36,000 sq ft of lettings at Derwent House and 16,000 sq ft at the revamped Albert Works.
The biggest deal of the year, however, was Knight Frank’s 27,500 sq ft at The Balance. Knight Frank also did more deals than anyone else.
Overall take-up was down slightly on last year, although unlike last year these figures can be considered genuine private sector take-up with no sales to the city’s universities propping up the numbers.
Going down
Fernie Greaves slipped three places on the table after seeing transaction volumes dip by almost half against the previous year. The company also recently lost director Tim Bottrill, who has formed his own company, Colloco, which will be one to watch next year.
Going up
Commercial Property Partners engineered a 133% increase in office disposal space and in so doing has firmly established itself as one of Sheffield’s pre-eminent office agents. Its 20 deals in the period included four that broke the 10,000 sq ft mark.
Key stats
289,311 sq ft
Total space disposed: down 4.4% on 302,684 sq ft last year
4,384 sq ft
Average deal size: down 0.07% on 4,387 sq ft
66
Deal numbers: down 4.35% on 69 last year
99.5%
Top 10 agents accounted for 99.5% of take up, up 6% on last year
27,500 sq ft
Largest letting: The Balance, Pinfold Street, to Johnston Press by Knight Frank
