York set to buck downward trend

One of York’s specialist commercial property agents reports that the market, although tough, is not impossible to do deals in

Reeves and Co, based at Monks Cross, reported that they have been successful in transacting over 80,000 sq ft of office space in York in the last 6 months, with deals including the former Aviva HQ at Clifton Park (43,000 sq ft) and recently letting the former Jarvis building at The Crescent, York (25,000 sq ft), along with a number of smaller offices at Monks Cross and Holgate Villa, on Holgate Road.

John Reeves said ‘To put the extent of this recent success in context, a market report released by property advisers DTZ has shown that for the whole of the first three months of the year in Leeds only 83,000 sq ft of office space was transacted. Nobody pretends the world is all hunky dory but when you consider the size of some of these deals against what Leeds has managed it shows York is still a great place to do business.’

On average York has a take up of approximately 150,000 sq ft of space per annum and if this letting trend continues York will buck the national trend of falling office take up.

However John added ‘It is getting tougher out there. There is little bank support for business and empty rates legislation combined with banks inability or possibly disinclination to lend have put a stop to development for the foreseeable future which is causing chaos in the construction sector. When an occupier wants a property they are driving hard deals and it’s only the best property that is letting well. We feel the lack of new development may well lead to a shortage of property in future which will change the market from a buyers to sellers market and the unenviable cycles we see ourselves in will start all over again.’