24 May 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Manchester experienced the greatest take-up of office space at 1,750,562 square feet in 2018 - a 44 per cent increase from the previous year, according to analysis by commercial property specialist Savoy Stewart.
Analysing findings from several regional city reports on 10 cities, Savoy Stewart found that Manchester also benefited from the highest office investment volume at £989 million - an 8 per cent rise on the year before.
Glasgow saw a take-up of 962,921 square feet in office space and gained an investment level of £468 million - a 3 per cent rise from 2017.
Notably, it says, Leeds, in third position, saw an astonishing 185 per cent year-on-year increase in office investment - from £127 million in 2017 to £362 million in 2018.
Out of all the considered cities, Newcastle had the lowest take-up of offices at 236,928 sq ft. Despite this, the city still had a 33 per cent surge from the year before (2017) - when office take-up was 177,870 sq ft.
Slightly above this came Sheffield, which had an office take-up of 363,584 sq ft in 2018.
The primary consideration in search criteria for most businesses seeking new office premises in 2019 is 'location' (84 per cent).
The 10 cities included in the research are: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.