The Manchester Office Agents Forum (MOAF) has released its take-up figures for Q2 of 2011. It shows that occupier activity for Manchester City Centre has increased after a slow start to the year. 

City Centre take-up up 36%

Take-up for Q2 within the city centre totalled 174,978 sq ft, an increase of 36% compared to Q1. H1 total for 2011 is 304,000 sq ft, which is 4% less than the 317,000 sq ft for the corresponding period in 2010. 

The most notable transactions in Q2 were Linder Myers’ acquisition of 55 Spring Gardens (47,500 sq ft) and HL Interactive’s acquisition of 9,000 sq ft at City Tower. The recent deal agreed at City Tower, which saw Aegis acquire 36,000 sq ft, will be included in Q3 figures.

Supply continues to decrease

Supply continues to decrease with no large scale speculative development announced. Less than two years’ supply remains for grade A space. For Landlords with high quality grade A buildings, it has enabled a more selective approach to agreeing deals. This is likely to continue as grade A stock continues to be absorbed, resulting in an increase in average grade A rents.

South Manchester take-up increased 38%, but lacks sizable deals

South Manchester has experienced a 38% increase in take-up compared to Q1 2011.  However, the lack of sizeable transactions over 10,000 sq ft has reduced overall take-up by 31% from the corresponding figure in 2010.

David Thwaites, Head of Office Agency in our Manchester office, said: “The slow start to 2011 followed an extremely strong end of year for 2010, where take-up levels were boosted by several large deals, most notably by The Co-operative Group.

Manchester continues to outperform competing regional centres

“2010 was an unprecedented year for occupational activity. It was always going to be difficult to maintain that level in the current climate. However, Manchester continues to outperform other competing regional centres. It should benefit from several large requirements likely to be satisfied before the end of the year.”