Newcastle is the only regional city centre in the 海角视频 not to have suffered a drop in demand for office space during lockdown, research shows.
The study by commercial property specialists Knight Frank has revealed that Newcastle is bucking national trends as the only city centre the firm operates in not to have chalked up a quarter-on-quarter drop in office take-up, with overall deals across the North East in April, May and June holding up relatively well.
In Newcastle city centre firms signed up for a combined 35,272 sq ft of office space across four deals in the second quarter of the year, which is marginally above the first quarter total.
Total office take-up, across the city centre and out of town, for the region was 226,327 sq ft, a 12% lift on the 201,956 sq ft which was sealed in the first quarter.
Compared to the quarterly average of 234,578 sq ft across 2019, however, this marked a 3.5% drop.
Patrick Matheson, partner for office agency at Knight Frank Newcastle, said: “We are buoyed by the quarter two data because Newcastle city centre has clearly held up better than expected, especially compared to other 海角视频 cities but we’re cautiously optimistic because we know the figures include several deals which were due to complete in quarter one but were delayed.”
A new citywide headline rent of £26 per sq ft was achieved at Newcastle Helix in the 19,000 sq ft letting at Lumen to Homes England.
Other city centre deals included Pegasus Planning taking 3,200 sq ft at Gainsborough House on Grey Street and Samuel Knight International taking 9,838 sq ft at City Quadrant.
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Out-of-town take-up hit 191,001 sq ft which was an increase of 14.27% from Q1. The figure was made up of 15 transactions.
Riga, the new 53,000 sq ft building developed by Gateshead Council, saw the most noteworthy deal with 30,000 sq ft going to Northern Gas and Power at a rent of £18 per sqft. Quorum also achieved several new lettings totalling 46,937 sq.ft which included 35,000 sq ft to Shared Services Connected.
Mr Matheson added: “In terms of new enquiries, there were 30 new office requirements recorded across the North East market in Q2, which is encouraging. We are seeing office viewing requests increase week-on-week as pent up demand for office space that built during lockdown, converts into action.”