A guide to serviced offices and office space to rent in Manchester as well as general information that may be useful if you are thinking of renting office space in the city.
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History & Geography
Manchester is located in the North West of England, bordered by the Pennines and the Cheshire Plain. Manchester lies on the east bank of the River Irwell and was first inhabited by the powerful Brigante tribe. However, the city only became a permanent settlement when the Romans invaded Britain and established a large fort in the area, called Mamucium, in 79 CE. The Romans abandoned the area in the 4th century, though the civilian settlement which had sprung up around the fort continued. After the invasion of England by the Normans in 1066, much of the area was laid waste during the Harrying of the North, with the ultimate death toll reaching the hundreds of thousands. However, Manchester survived and continued to grow in population, soon becoming a prosperous market town. The influx of Flemish weavers to the area in the 14th century transformed Manchester into the regional hub of the textile industry, and the city became known for its woollen and linen articles. During the Industrial Revolution, Manchester became the world’s most productive cotton processing centre and developed a host of other industries alongside it. Soon, Manchester became known as the world’s greatest industrial city and continued to expand rapidly. When the Manchester Ship Canal was built in 1894, it allowed ocean-going ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. The last quarter of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was a golden era for the city, and the phrase ” What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow’ was coined. However, the latter half of the 20th century saw the city’s fortunes decline, with the heavy industry facing a massive downturn. Between 1961 and 1983, the city lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs. During the early 1990s, Manchester saw significant regeneration efforts. Millions of pounds were given to the city to repair the destruction caused by an IRA bomb in 1996, which resulted in the transformation of the city centre. This was also further bolstered by the income and developments generated by the hosting of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Today, Manchester is effectively England’s second city, a thriving economic hub and cultural icon.
Economy
Manchester’s economy is one of the largest in England, and the city is a centre of the arts, media, commerce and higher education. Additionally, the city is a major legal and financial hub. A recent survey of business leaders in the UK ranked Manchester as the best place in the UK to locate a business and the 12th best in Europe. One of the city’s largest employers is the Co-operative Group, the world’s largest consumer-owned business. Spinningfields, the large business area west of Deansgate, is currently being described as the Canary Wharf of the north and is home to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters. Construction is also an important industry in Manchester, and the city is currently home to one of the largest new developments in the UK, NOMA. Situated in the north of the city, NOMA is a 20-acre site of offices, leisure, retail and residential space. Along with its function as a centre of business, Manchester is also a popular destination for visitors from the rest of the UK and the world. The city’s tourism industry is a major source of revenue, and Manchester is currently the second-most-visited city in England after London.
Tourism & Culture
Manchester is a cultural icon for the rest of the UK and the world, a status reflected in its thriving tourism industry. Much of the city’s fame is from its musical heritage. A long list of bands hails from Manchester, including Oasis, The Smiths, the Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division and New Order. During the 1980s, the city fostered a host of indie bands, such as The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and James. The ‘Madchester’ phenomenon also gave birth to the rave scene and the music that went alongside it. This legacy continues to this day and is evident in the city’s still-thriving music scene and nightlife. Manchester has some of the best clubs in the country, and areas such as the Northern Quarter and Canal Street, home to the city’s gay village, have an array of bars, clubs, pubs and restaurants. Also, the city’s ‘Curry Mile’ in Rusholme is famous for its Asian restaurants. Manchester is, of course, also known for its association with perhaps the most famous football club in the world, Manchester United, and its stadium, Old Trafford, and is a magnet for aficionados of the sport, as is its cross-city rival, Manchester City. The city also has a wide variety of museums, including the Imperial War Museum North, the Museum of Science and Industry and the People’s History Museum.
Transportation
Manchester has one of the best transport infrastructures of any city in the UK. It is served by Manchester Airport, the busiest in the country outside London, serving flights to North America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and the rest of Europe. The airport is easily accessible by rail from Manchester Piccadilly station, the UK’s busiest station outside London. The other main railway station in the city is Manchester Victoria. Manchester itself is served by an extensive bus network as well as the Manchester Metrolink, the largest tram system in the UK.
Manchester Office Space and Flexible Workspace Market
Take-up in Manchester in 2022 reached 1.1m sq ft, an increase of 7% on the previous year, and coincided with city centre footfall returning to pre-2020 levels.
In terms of leased offices, headline rents have been predicted to top £40 per square foot for prime Grade A space in the traditional central core by the end of 2023.
Grade B space in the same location is expected to reach £30 per square foot.
Grade A office space in Spinningfields is expected to reach £36.50 per square foot.
Grade A space in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter is expected to reach £32 per square foot with Grade B space achieving £25 per square foot.
In Piccadilly, Grade A space is expected to reach £33 per square foot and Grade B space to reach £30 per square foot.
In 2023, Manchester’s office space take-up fell just short of 1 million square feet at 946,000 square feet.
This was lower than 2022’s figure and lower than the five- and 10-year average figures for the city due to a shortage of large deal completions.
The Manchester Office Agents Forum (MOAF) advised that the 10 largest transactions completed in 2023 totalled 254,566 square feet compared to 408,921 square feet in 2022.
MOAF, however, was optimistic about a strong 2024 in terms of take-up due to several large requirements to be satisfied in the first half of the year.
In May 2024, the forum, which comprises Avison Young, BE Group, CBRE, Colliers International, Canning O’Neill, Cushman & Wakefield, Edwards Property Consultants, Hallam Property Consultants, JLL, Knight Frank, LSH, Fisher German, OBI, Savills, Sixteen, and TSG Property Consultants, advised that office space take-up figures in Q1 2024 were down year-on-year.
The figure was 173,000 square feet of office space rented compared to 205,000 square feet in the same period last year.
The largest deals were Atkins’ 38,000 square feet letting at Longmead’s 3 Piccadilly Place was the largest deal of Q1, followed by DAC Beachcroft taking 13,200 square feet at Barings’ Landmark.
A total of 50 office space letting deals were completed between January and the end of March.
Despite the decline, the forum remained optimistic as tenants continued in their flight to quality, and, at the time of reporting, there was a healthy pipeline of deals waiting to be completed later in the year.
By October 2024, it was announced that serviced office provider Gilbanks had secured agreements with Arm and Axa at Relentless Group’s No. St Michael’s.
Also, in October 2024, it was announced that Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) were moving around 1,500 employees to their new North West headquarters, the Island building.
Island on John Dalton Street is a joint venture between Henry Boot Developments (HBD) and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) and offers a net-zero carbon workspace.
The broadband and mobile operator agreed to rent 45,700 square feet on a 10-year lease.
Later that month, it was announced that Manchester’s largest office building, One Hardman Boulevard in Spinningfields, would be refurbished by its owners, Parthena Reys.
The private equity firm bought the nine-floor, 506,468-square-foot building from the NatWest Group in December 2023 and planned to release the Grade-A refurbished space to the market by the end of 2024.
In January 2025, it was announced that fit-out specialists Overbury had signed a deal for 6,843 square feet of space on the 13th floor of Chancery Place, signalling its move from The Zenith Building, where it had been based for 18 years.
The company agreed to a 10-year lease with landlord NFU, who bought the 106,000-square-foot building in 2014 for £57 million.
Also, in January 2025, it was reported that creative design agency Brandon Consultants had agreed on a new ten-year lease to occupy 5,150 square feet on the second floor at the Grade-II-listed former textile warehouse 86 Princess Street in Manchester city centre.
The 10-year lease offered a break option at year five, and the tenant’s incentives included a rent-free period and the option to spread the cost of fitting out the second floor over the duration of the term.
The new tenant joined Big Brand Ideas, The And Partnership, Cultureshift, Dinosaur PR, and SeeSaw, a flexible workspace offering on the ground and first floors at the property, leaving just one suite comprising 2,350 square feet available at the popular property.
In February 2025, the MOAF reported that the total take-up through office lettings in Manchester city centre was 1.22 million square feet in 2024.
This was the highest office take-up figure since before the pandemic and exceeded Manchester’s five-year take-up average. It was also the best figure recorded in the 2020s, narrowly surpassing 2022’s 1.21 million-square-foot total.
The largest transaction of 2024 was BNY Mellon taking 200,000 square feet at 4 Angel Square in NOMA.
In 2024, 536,180 square feet of office space was let in transactions of 20,000 square feet or more in the city centre, double the number of transactions over 20,000 square feet in 2023.
In April 2025, the MOAF reported that Manchester enjoyed its best start to a year for office leasing deals since the first quarter of 2020, with take-up in Q1 reaching 320,000 square feet.
AutoTrader’s 130,000 square feet deal to take half of Bruntwood SciTech’s No 3 Circle Square contributed significantly to the take-up totals.
In July 2025, it was reported that the Big 9 regional office markets saw the strongest H1 take-up in six years.
These figures had been boosted by Manchester and others significantly outperforming their 10-year averages. Manchester outperformed its average by 27 per cent.
In September 2025, it was reported that software business Softcat had signed a deal for 35,000 square feet at Manchester Goods Yard within the Enterprise City campus.
Softcat would relocate from Universal Square to the Aviva-backed campus, which is also home to several high-profile occupiers, including Booking.com and Cloud Imperium Games.
In October 2025, it was reported that law firm JMW had signed a 15-year lease with Worthington Mancap for 42,260 square feet on floors 8-11 of the Grade A 125 Deansgate building.
The tenant was advised by Andrew Timms, Head of Office Agency at Edwards Property Consultants, and the landlord was represented by Dominic Pozzoni of Colliers.
In November 2025, it was reported that Manchester’s Q3 take-up had reached 191,728 square feet across 46 office lettings deals. This brought the year-to-date total to 773,270 square feet.
It was noted that over 50 per cent of the 2025 deals had been for new Grade A and refurbished Grade A office space, highlighting the continued demand for high-quality office space.
Manchester has a mature flexible workspace market that offers private serviced offices, managed workspace options and coworking memberships for corporates and individuals from a variety of building types in locations including Spinningfields, the Northern Quarter, the traditional core around King Street, NOMA, Ancoats and Piccadilly.
There are over 30 flex space providers in Manchester, and the profiles of each can be found here.
International serviced office providers such as Regus and Huckletree, as well as national operators such as Gilbanks, Landmark and Orega, provide flex spaces in Manchester. There are also several Manchester-based office providers, the largest of which is Bruntwood.
Many office providers offer a wide range of workspace options, including co-working space, and there are also many providers that specialise in co-working space. Spaces, for instance, provide coworking-led space in the city, and international co-working space provider WeWork chose Manchester as its first UK location outside of the capital as a location in which to operate. The first of their co-working centres was in Spinningfields.
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