Investment into Leeds 'highest of any regional city' in UK

Despite a national trend of reduced investment deals during the first quarter, Leeds tracked at slightly above the long term average for commercial property investment.

A total of 144,000 sq ft of which was let in the city centre, including a handful of deals between 10,000 and 30,000 sq ft.

Meanwhile, a new headline rent was reached, peaking at £2 per sq ft higher compared with quarter one in 2019, when recruitment company Charlton Morris leased 10,000 sq ft at the refurbished 34 Boar Lane.

The highest quoting rent for the remaining space is at the recently refurbished cinema, Majestic, at £34 per sq ft.

The city’s largest deal of the quarter came from Leeds University with 31,000 sq ft let at Cloth Hall Court. Other key deals included 22,000 sq ft to tech design company TTEC at West Gate and 16,600 sq ft at King Street, taken by JN Bentley.

The findings were published in Avison Young’s Big Nine report. It showed that total take-up across the UK’s nine largest office markets outside of the capital was eight per cent below the quarterly average.

The report comes in the same week that consultants Knight Frank claimed Leeds was well-poised to weather the impact of the Covid 19 shutdown owing to the strength of its property and financial services sectors.

Jill Goodman, director within Avison Young’s Leeds office, said: “We started the year still under a slight cloud of uncertainty, not knowing the full impact that Brexit would have on the market. However, it is positive to see that Leeds’ office market continued to thrive and secure investment during the first quarter of the year.”