Neither this nor the Q4 figures were representative of the activity currently in play – considering the number and size of deals that were close to completion at year end. These will have carried over into 2024, boosting the outlook for both Q1 and Q2.
This represents 20% of annual take-up of 133,337 sq ft.
This compares with 31% in Q3, with 5 deals totalling 41,497 sq ft.
The quarter’s largest deal was by serviced office provider, IWG, for 13,430 sq ft at 6060 Knights Court, Birmingham Business Park. The majority of Q4’s transactions (7) were under 5,000 sq ft. In terms of location, deals were split between properties at Birmingham Business Park (3) and Coleshill (3). There was also one deal in Solihull town centre, and one in the fringe area of Hockey Heath. This demonstrates the alternative opportunities that lie outside of larger business parks for businesses who would prefer smaller premises and who don’t need to be so close to the motorway.
| Office building | Size (sq ft) | Location | Occupier | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6060 Knights Court | 13,430 | Birmingham Business Park | IWG | Serviced offices |
| 6130 Knights Court | 3,057 | Birmingham Business Park | Galldris | Civil engineering |
| The Gardens, Coleshill Manor | 2,873 | Coleshill | Remmers (UK) | Building materials |
| 2450 Regents Court | 2,659 | Birmingham Business Park | Attire | Workwear |
| Total | 22,019 | 83% of quarterly take-up, 4 transactions |
Sub 5,000 sq ft spaces prove most popular
Throughout the year, we saw a preference towards office space under 5,000 sq ft in the M42 and Solihull office market 2023. Of the year’s 33 transactions, 27 of these were for space under 5,000 sq ft, with businesses typically located at Birmingham Business Park, Coleshill or Solihull town centre. These sites offer easy access to the J4-J6 M42 corridor and there was clear commercial confidence in, and appeal of, the M42 and Solihull.
With this in mind, it makes sense that we saw less interest in locations outside of this core area. From Bromsgrove and Redditch further south, to Shirley and Hockley Heath along the M42 North, we saw less stock and fewer transactions in the office market within these locations.
Solihull’s flexible office sector flourishes
In 2023, hybrid working continued to feature in both the Birmingham and out-of-town markets.
Serviced office providers accounted for 33% of take-up in Solihull and the M42 – the largest proportion by sector, followed by professional services at 17%. The year’s two largest serviced office deals totalled 44,063 sq ft, with Orega occupying Ingenuity House in Q3 and IWG at 6060 Knights Court, Birmingham Business Park.
The majority of professional services transactions were across commercial property, construction consultancy and civil engineering. After Holman, Galldris and JBA Consulting, businesses took up smaller premises below 2,000 sq ft at locations including Dominion Court in Solihull town centre and Knights Court at Birmingham Business Park. While construction transactions were down compared with 2022, we still saw one of the largest transactions of the year from Avant Homes with 6,938 sq ft at Wingfield Court in Coleshill (Q2).
Other industries that performed well in 2023’s office market were fleet management, education, recruitment and training. We also noticed an increase in transactions among education companies in Birmingham city centre – a sign that this sector is one to watch over the next 12 months.
| Quarter | Office building | Size (sq ft) | Location | Occupier | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 | Ingenuity House | 30,633 | Birmingham Business Park | Orega | Serviced offices |
| Q2 | 4020 Lakeside | 15,896 | Birmingham Business Park | Holman | Fleet management |
| Q4 | 6060 Knights Court Court | 13,430 | Birmingham Business Park | IWG | Serviced offices |
| Q2 | Wingfield Court | 6,938 | Coleshill | Avant Homes | Housebuilder |
| Q3 | Highlands House | 5,737 | Cranmore, Shirley | Energym | Gym equipment |
| Q1 | Avon Business Centre | 5,005 | Shirley | Energy & Utility Skills | Training and education |
| Q2 | 2 Ravenscourt | 4,757 | Redditch | Fizz Group | Education supplies |
| Q2 | 5 The Courtyard | 4,500 | Bromsgrove | Montvieux | IT |
| Q1 | 2660 Kings Court | 4,158 | Birmingham Business Park | Leaf Complex Care | Care |
| Q1 | 3 Brooklands | 3,500 | Redditch | AutoMoney Motor Finance (Mobile Money) | Financial services |
| Total | 94,554 | 71% of take-up, 10 transactions |
The business, which provides hybrid working space with brands including Spaces and Regus, added 867 new locations globally in 2023 and saw its highest ever quarterly revenue in Q4. This is a strong sign of the rapid network growth for flexible working space.
Knights Court joins IWG’s estate of serviced offices across various locations in Solihull, including the ground floor of the Comet Building at Birmingham Airport, and 4200 Solihull Parkway on Birmingham Business Park.
6060 Knights Court is a comprehensively refurbished, Grade A, self-contained office building over two storeys. It offers bright, open workspaces, as well as excellent commuter facilities including showers and electric vehicle charging points.
The building occupies a convenient location on the Business Park with added benefits including an outdoor gym, landscaped outdoor spaces and a number of retail and leisure units close by.
Also joining IWG at Knights Court in Q4 was civil engineering company, Galldris, which took 3,057 sq ft.
On the positive leasing activity for serviced offices, Jane Erasmus, Sales and Marketing Director at UBC, said: “UBC Birmingham Business Park at 1310 Parkway in Solihull saw a strong sales performance during 2023 despite a backdrop of increasing operating costs. Whilst overall enquiry volumes were down nearly 30% on 2022, the quality of enquiries was much improved with businesses ready to make decisions and commit to space. This resulted in occupancy increasing during the year and the serviced office centre reported 94% occupancy at year-end with profitability up 22% on the previous year’s figures.”
| Quarter | Office building | Size (sq ft) | Occupier | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 | 4020 Lakeside | 15,896 | Holman | Fleet management |
| Q4 | 6060 Knights Court | 13,430 | IWG | Serviced offices |
| Q1 | 2660 Kings Court | 4,158 | Leaf Complex Care | Care |
| Q4 | 6130 Knights Court | 3,057 | Galldris | Civil engineering |
| Q4 | 2450 Regents Court | 2,659 | Attire | Workwear |
| Q2 | 6170 Knights Court | 1,874 | Mix Telematics | Fleet management |
| Q2 | 2625 Kings Court | 1,578 | Combat Stress | Charity |
| Q1 | 3120 Park Square | 1,439 | Praesidiad Group | Security / Fencing |
| Q2 | 6110 Knights Court | 1,328 | Goodrich Consulting | Construction consulting |
| Total | 45,419 | 34% of take-up, 9 transactions |
The largest deal of the Solihull office market 2023 saw serviced office operator, Orega, take space at Ingenuity House at Bickenhill Lane, Solihull, in Q3.
A Partnership Agreement with the building’s owners, abrdn, saw Orega take 30,633 sq ft across the ground and first floors of the 5-storey, 114,634 sq ft building.
Orega and abrdn have created a high-specification, flexible workspace of 550 workstations targeting the area’s professional and financial businesses. It comes as no surprise that Orega has already secured an early, pre-completion letting to a major financial services business at the property, which will take 150 desks on the first floor – a testament to the calibre of businesses requiring flexible office space.
This unique building epitomises modern-day, flexible working and gives tenants access to a wide variety of different working zones, including dedicated training and breakout areas, and self-bookable meeting rooms.
A stand-out feature of the building is its huge, design-led communal atrium, where tenants can enjoy hospitality-led amenities and facilities. In keeping with evolving workplace demographics and requirements, the versatile building boasts several wellbeing facilities, including:
Ingenuity House is regarded as one of the most sustainable properties in the UK and optimises energy efficiency with an EPC-B rating, BREEAM Excellent and 76 solar panels.
Michelle Mills, CBRE’s out-of-town specialist, said: “The addition of flex space at Ingenuity House will be a draw not only to footloose occupiers looking for high quality accommodation, but also to larger tenants who wish to take dedicated space, but can scale-up as they grow within the building. It undoubtedly further boosts the appeal of this high spec and prominently located landmark office space.”
Following a freeze in fleet management transactions in 2022, the sector picked back up in Q2 of 2023, where we saw two deals for global fleet management specialists at Birmingham Business Park.
Most notably, Holman took 15,896 sq ft at 4020 Lakeside. The deal came as the business signed a seven-year deal with BT, a contract understood to have been one of the largest of its kind in history, involving 37,000 commercial vehicles.
Holman’s new site helped its workforce expand to over 300 employees, with 100 new jobs created so far in the Midlands across maintenance technician and customer service operative roles.
We anticipate 4020 Lakeside performing well in 2024. Traditionally a prime location for large lettings in Birmingham’s out-of-town office market, sizeable deals like IWG’s are now increasingly rare – as stock on the Park has been snapped up over recent years. As a result, there’s a current shortage of large space available at the Park; so if you’re in the market for new commercial office space and considering Birmingham Business Park, we would recommend you act quickly.
In Q2, fleet and mobile asset management solution, Mix Telematics, joined 6170 Knights Court nearby, taking 1,874 sq ft of space.
From housebuilder Avant Homes’s 6,938 sq ft at Wingfield Court, to Holborn’s 828 sq ft at De Montfort House, Coleshill secured 8 deals across different sizes in 2023.
While there weren’t as many deals secured as in 2022 (12), we did see the majority of Coleshill’s transactions taking place during Q4 2023. In total, the 3 deals in Q4 totalled 4,924 sq ft, representing 18% of the quarter’s take-up across the M42 and Solihull market 2023.
This tells us that while the business parks close to the M42 , NEC and Birmingham Airport are popular, there are still plenty of opportunities for businesses looking to take up premises in fringe areas of Solihull.
| Quarter | Office building | Size (sq ft) | Occupier | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 | Wingfield Court | 6,938 | Avant Homes | Housebuilder |
| Q4 | The Gardens, Coleshill Manor | 2,873 | Remmers (UK) | Building materials |
| Q3 | De Montfort House | 2,432 | Mercury xRM | Recruitment software |
| Q3 | Coleshill House | 2,103 | JBA Consulting | Environmental consultants |
| Q1 | Coleshill House | 1,600 | Salvino Del Bene | Transport |
| Q4 | St Philips Courtyard | 1,035 | Dr Danielle Grey Psychological Services | Healthcare |
| Q4 | 18 The Courtyard | 1,016 | Aesthetic Nurse Software | Software / TMT |
| Q2 | De Montfort House | 828 | Holborn | M&E |
| Total | 18,825 | 14% of take-up, 8 transactions |
Nelson House is the latest building to become available for lease at Blythe Valley Park in Solihull.
The self-contained, headquarters-style building features 14,492 sq ft of office space across three floors. As you enter an impressive, full-height reception, you can access the upper floors via a 10-person passenger lift or steel and glass staircase.
Set within landscaped grounds and clad in polished granite, the building is intersected with double-glazed powder-coated windows and offers excellent natural light. It has been re-decorated and carpeted throughout and has suspended ceilings fitted with new LED lighting.
In a prime location on Blythe Valley Park’s Central Boulevard, Nelson House joins over 25 occupiers including Gymshark, Oracle and Taylor Wimpey. With employee health and wellness high on the agenda in recent years, tenants at Blythe Valley benefit from a range of on-site amenities, including Virgin Active Gym, Java Roastery Coffee, Co-op and Busy Bees Nursery.
KWB is marketing the building on behalf of owners and director, Malcolm Jones, said: “It’s rare and exciting for a building of this size and quality located at the centre of the UK transport network to become available. We’re already seeing significant interest and don’t expect it to be on the market for long.”
Nelson House has space for a small showroom and we can see this building appealing to industrial occupiers, as well as businesses in the automotive and medtech industries. We can see an example of medtech on the Park from 2022, when 5,327 sq ft of space at Cornwall House on Blythe Valley was taken by SpaMedica, one of the UK’s leading providers of NHS eye patient services and, as of 2018, the largest NHS cataract surgery provider in the UK. The company opened a modern, state-of-the-art eye hospital at Blythe Valley to support patients with treatment programmes for NHS cataract surgery, age-related macular degeneration and YAG laser treatment.
More developments are catering to the shifting expectations of workplace environments – and Solihull’s AIR and Vienna House buildings are no exceptions.
As an exceptional landmark within Solihull town centre and a flagship architectural building, AIR offers 69,000 sq ft of reinvigorated, Grade A workspace. The impressive office space combines sustainable timber and finished stonework with contemporary lighting in the reception and atrium to offer unrivalled style and spaciousness.
Comprehensively refurbished for the modern occupier, AIR is a benchmark building of sustainability and wellbeing, with features including:
Another nearby building currently undergoing refurbishment is Vienna House – a modern, 3-storey office building on International Park, adjacent to Bickenhill Lane.
Totalling 25,360 sq ft, the self-contained building offers an open plan, contemporary working environment that is rated EPC-A and adheres to the principles of BREEAM ‘Very Good’. The smart-enabled building is controlled using a Tenant App that allows occupiers to enhance their use of the offices, while optimising cost and reducing carbon.
According to Forbes, 87% of employees now consider health and wellness offerings when choosing an employer. Vienna House addresses these demands with an external wellbeing building that includes:
As part of Vienna House’s impressive environmental credentials, the building also has PV panels, four EV charging points and commuting facilities.
While sustainability and wellness may previously have felt like buzzwords, they are trends that will only continue to grow. As we look to the rest of 2024 and the years approaching the UK’s 2030 sustainability goals, we can expect to see more commercial property developers and investors enhancing their properties in different ways.
Solihull Council has successfully secured £300,000 to enhance local transport links and support a more mobile workforce.
The funding will be used to explore how a new automated transport link between Blythe Valley Business Park, near Shirley, and the new HS2 rail station in Solihull could operate in the future.
The award of funding is further endorsement of Solihull Council’s work to explore how automated transport might support a shift towards new emerging forms of shared public mobility.
Councillor Ken Hawkins, Solihull Council Cabinet Member for Environment & Infrastructure, said: “We’ve already carried out a series of successful pathfinder trials here in Solihull, using our own automated shuttle, and have led the way in showing how it is possible to practically and safely incorporate automated vehicles into our existing transport infrastructure.
“We are now taking the next step and undertaking the vital feasibility work necessary in order to start thinking about more ambitious deployments and establishing new commercial public transport services.”
2024 is set to be a year of improvements to the area’s local transport network, as work continues on the M42 motorway relief road scheme. As part of a brand-new junction aimed at easing congestion, construction continues on the slip roads that will form Junction 5A on the M42 south east of Solihull.
Due for completion in autumn 2024, the motorway construction is close to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Resorts World, Birmingham Airport and the planned HS2 Interchange Station. Locally, this railway will pass through Balsall Common, Berkswell, Hampton in Arden, Bickenhill and Chelmsley Wood areas of Solihull. As a major gateway station for the West Midlands region, Interchange Station will connect passengers to Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester city centres.
Advice for occupiers
When we consider the success of fringe areas such as Coleshill, it’s apparent that occupiers don’t necessarily need to be located on sites such as Birmingham Business Park and Blythe Valley if they don’t need client-facing facilities. The question begs to be asked – can these sites facilitate occupiers taking under 5,000 sq ft?
With very little freehold space in the current market, we’re seeing low supply and high demand. So, if you’re thinking of selling or have a lease break coming up this year, now is a good time to make a move.
We’d advise taking advice early on and clearly acknowledge what your company’s unique property requirements are. Do you need to be within a few minutes of the motorway, or would town centre facilities suit you better? Then look at your workforce requirement. How does your team prefer to work? How could you enhance their experience of the working environment, and potentially lower your energy usage and cost, with sustainability and wellbeing facilities? More companies are taking these themes seriously and creating new working cultures, and we recommend taking these steps now to remain competitive as you look to recruit and retain top talent.
Advice for landlords
In the market for a refurbishment? Then you’ll need to go back to basics and comprehensively refurbish the space. You’ll want to aim for a Grade A specification with an EPC-A rating or B at the minimum. By creating light, spacious and welcoming working environments that place equal importance on wellbeing and sustainability, your property is likely to succeed in 2024.
See also our Birmingham office market research.
