Office space Solihull and M42 corridor – quarter 1 2013 take-up

The good news continues for office space in Solihull, in line with our predictions set out earlier in the year.

At 94,827 sq ft of M42/Solihull office space transacted for the quarter, this equates to 379,000 sq ft per annum compared with 325,000 sq ft in 2012. If demand for offices in Solihull and the M42 corridor continues at this pace, then potentially we could be looking at a record year.

At the moment, KWB is experiencing continued enquiries through its website and has 5 office transactions currently in solicitors’ hands due to complete next month. Take-up for office space in Solihull and the M42 should continue at the same encouraging level.

Of the office space transactions completed this quarter, 3 are already over 10,000 sq ft, with the letting to British Car Auctions representing the largest letting for 2 years on Birmingham Business Park. The acquisition by Leasedrive Velo of 14,730 sq ft in the Phoenix Building at Blythe Valley Park must also be the largest for over 12 months on the park.

Resurgence in interest for offices at Birmingham Business Park

The resurgence in interest in Birmingham Business Park is very encouraging as it is a location that has suffered most from the recession due to its oversupply. However, 5 of the 18 deals, or 28% of the market, are on Birmingham Business Park this quarter, representing a complete turnaround from previous years. Birmingham Business Park provides good quality, sensibly priced office space in Solihull and with more selection. It has secured a good level of inward investment from nearby areas – 4 of the transactions were previously located outside the park and one represents a new regional office linked to a head office in Loughborough.

JLR supply chain starts to generate office space lettings

Spark44’s acquisition of just under 9,000 sq ft of office space at Trinity Park, their first UK regional office outside of London, is the first significant non-industrial office space letting associated with the Jaguar Land Rover supply chain, as we predicted last year – “Positive outlook for 2013 office space Birmingham and Solihull / M42“.

Expert Tooling & Automation, who also work alongside JLR, has also taken just over 1,500 sq ft of office space at Meriden, relocating from Coventry.

Companies achieve greater efficiency by amalgamating offices

Another notable transaction is that of Selco’s acquisition of 16,300 sq ft of office space at Boundary House in Wythall Green, the largest transaction for office space in the M42 corridor this quarter, which is an amalgamation of a number of smaller regional offices into one central location.

Positive outlook for office space in Solihull continues

With the focus very much around Junction 6 of the M42 at the moment, we remain optimistic about the market for office space in Solihull for the remainder of 2013.

See full details of the transactions for office space in Solihull and M42 corridor.