Manchester's office market saw the strongest start to the year since the pandemic, a new study has shown - but Liverpool had a slow six months as the city continues to suffer from a lack of space.
Avison Young's Big Nine report into office activity in º£½ÇÊÓƵ cities outside London showed total take up in Manchester of 542,107 sq ft in Q2, down three per cent on Q1 but still above the ten-year average. And the property giant said H1 2025 "has been the strongest start of the year since the pandemic", with 1.1 million sq ft of take up.
Some 36 per cent of take-up in Q2 was from the media, telecoms and creative sectors. The largest deal of the quarter was Warner Brothers letting 48,500 sq ft near Media City in Salford.
The Big Nine report showed Manchester city centre office vacancies fell slightly in the quarter as grade A space was taken up. No. 1 St Michael's was completed over the quarter but was fully let prior to completion while Bruntwood SciTech's 3 Circle Square completed this month. Prime rents in the city remained unchanged at £45 per sq ft.
Meanwhile, Liverpool saw a "quiet start to the year" as office availability was the lowest in any of the Big Nine cities with "critically" low levels of grade A space available.
Office take-up in Q2 rose 56 per cent on a "subdued" first quarter, to 55,000 sq ft. But that was still 57 per cent below the ten-year average, which Avison Young said highlighted "what has been a quiet start to the year for the Liverpool office market".
The report adds: "Given the current lack of space under construction, office vacancy rates decreased from 6.4 per cent to 5.8 per cent. At this level, office availability remains the lowest in the Big Nine with the market particularly suffering from critically low Grade A availability."
The largest deal of the quarter saw Liverpool John Moores University take 24,400 sq ft of office space at City Square "on a short-term lease while teaching space elsewhere is under refurbishment".
Nationally, take-up across the Big Nine cities - Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle - reached 1.6 million sq ft in the second quarter, up 25 per cent on Q1.
Total take-up in the first half of the year was 3.7 million sq ft which the report said was the strongest half year since 2019 .
It said: "Cities significantly outperforming the ten-year H1 average include Bristol (21 per cent), Manchester (27 per cent) and Newcastle (37 per cent)."
Paul Broad, principal and managing director of national offices at Avison Young, said: "The first half of the year has been transformational for the Big Nine office markets.
"The strength of activity reflects the levels of pent-up demand from occupiers. We're really starting to see out-of-town markets, where larger, flexible floorplates are available, benefit from city centre supply constraints.
"While overall activity decreased slightly in Q2, the year so far gives us confidence that demand will remain high for future-proofed, sustainable buildings that support evolving workforce needs."
