UK office markets 'picking up'

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 21-05-2009

The UK market for office interior lettings has picked up in recent months, property advisory consultancy GVA Grimley has revealed.

Research carried out by the organisation in its corporate real estate survey showed that nine per cent of businesses have increased their office space lettings in the last six months.

Dan Hodges, head of office agency in Leeds for GVA Grimley, said: "In terms of office markets it's slowly but surely getting better. Speculatively, development has stopped altogether in Leeds, . . . [while] with small 5,000 to 10,000 sq ft lettings there's still continual interest."

He added that this hopefully points to a "turning of the corner" for the office market, with the downturn not quite over but there now appears light at the end of the tunnel.

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the proportion of surveyors reporting a rise in available space compared to the number reporting a fall stood at 65 in the first quarter of 2009 - up from 57 in the fourth quarter of 2008.