A report from the property adviser on the subject covered progress within 11 of the UK’s most significant regional markets, where office take-up was measured at 1.42 million sq ft for the three months to the end of June.
That overall take-up figure marked a 32 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. However, some markets saw dramatically greater take-up of their offices than others, with Aberdeen’s unprecedented quarterly take-up of almost 548,000 sq ft credited with skewing the overall figures to some extent.
In fact, according to Knight Frank’s assessment, the majority of office space markets outside London experienced an annual decrease in take-up of properties. Interestingly, the three exceptions were all north of the border in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen.
Another point emphasised in the report was that the supply of new Grade A office space available to rent is dwindling across the country.
David Porter, head of commercial property for Knight Frank in Manchester, said: “The lack of high-quality available space across the regional markets, particularly in prime areas, is slowly leading to deals hardening.
“Continued demand may trigger some speculative development, albeit it is only likely on the back of a part-pre-let deal. We do still remain optimistic as demand has continued to remain stable over the first half of the year.”
A recent report released by the same firm noted a significant increase in the take-up of offices to rent in the City of London by technology businesses. Its figures pointed to a near-doubling of office space being newly rented by technology, media and telecoms companies in the Square Mile from the first half of 2011 to the first six months of 2012.
Editor’s notes: This article shows the office space take-up totals and notable deals in key UK cities in 2023.
In October 2024, it was announced that the UK regional office market recorded the highest Q3 take-up since 2018. The Big 6 regional office markets (Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, and Manchester) saw Q3 take-up grow by 38 per cent year-on-year. Birmingham performed exceptionally well, with its take-up achieving a 165 per cent Q3 year-on-year increase.
In January 2025, Savills announced that the Big 6 regional office markets recorded full-year 2024 city centre take-up at 4.36 million square feet combined, a 26 per cent year-on-year increase and the highest full-year take-up since 2019.
In July 2025, it was reported that the Big 9 regional office markets (Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle) saw the strongest H1 take-up in six years.
Avison Young reported that the 3.7 million square feet of office lettings in the first half of 2025 was 6 per cent above the 10-year average for H1 take-up and the best take-up performance since 2019.
The commercial real estate consultancy stated that the figures had been boosted by Bristol, Manchester, and Newcastle significantly outperforming their 10-year averages by 21 per cent, 27 per cent, and 37 per cent, respectively.