Tony Bray, who leads the Manchester branch of the property advisory Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), reflected on his company’s Insight 500 study and highlighted some of the city’s competitive advantages as a business location.
The research looked at the prospects for office space occupancy around the country, with Manchester deemed one of the UK’s most resilient commercial property markets.
“The biggest factors driving real estate decision process are total property costs, availability of a skilled workforce, accessibility to public transport and proximity of clients and markets,” Bray is quoted as saying in the Manchester Evening News.
“Manchester scores highly on all of these factors and consequently is able to retain existing as well as attracting new businesses to the region.”
C&W’s latest report pointed out that some of the largest office space occupiers in Manchester, including the finance businesses Aviva and Lloyds Banking Group, are considering switching locations in the city over the next few years as they look to maximise the returns on their investments.
Indeed, the study suggests that Manchester’s property market could change quite dramatically in the years to come as leases on 2.5 million sqft of office space expire between 2014 and 2017, according to MEN reports.
On a global scale, Cushman & Wakefield’s analysts recently rated London as officially the best city in the world to rent office space and do business. A separate report showed that New York was the leading city in attracting real estate investment in the first nine months of 2011, followed by London, which was found to have attracted the most foreign investment.
Editor’s notes: Manchester remains the largest UK office market outside London. In 2022, office space was taken up by leasing deals totalling 1.2 million square feet.
This was ahead of the 2021 total and in line with the 10-year average.
In 2023, Manchester’s office space take-up fell just short of 1m 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.
However, Manchester office agents remained optimistic of a stronger 2024 due to several large deals due to be completed in the first half of the year.