'Record take-up' for south coast offices

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 05-10-2011

The take-up of office space on the south coast of England has broken records this year, new research indicates.

In the opening eight months of 2011, Jones Lang LaSalle believes 22 deals were made in the region, which led to the transaction of 38,000 square feet of office interiors.

In the the Solent corridor, a yearly average of 23,000 square feet has been recorded over the course of the last 10 years.

In some cases, landlords have been forced to offer heavy discounts to prospective occupiers, the firm’s South Coast Metropole report suggests, with rent-free periods as long as five years also provided.

Meanwhile, the company’s research shows that quoted rents have been cut substantially, with reductions of 50% reported in certain instances.

Overall, the study shows that the south coast commercial property sector has outperformed the UK as a whole in recent times.

Copyright Press Association 2011