Member Article

Jones Lang LaSalle celebrates Leeds "outpacing" rivals

More than 250 property agents, developers and advisers attended the eighth Alternative Drinks reception, held at Aspire in Leeds to celebrate the successes of the Leeds property market last week.

The event coincided with the MIPIM 2014 in Cannes, and both served to spotlight the bouncing back of the property market in Yorkshire.

Sponsored by JLL, PWC, Santander and Muse Developments, the event organisers are hoping to have topped last year’s fundraising total of £1,900, once the final donations have been counted, and the event helped those in the property sector to network and help raise money for UK charity The Samaritans.

Jeff Pearey, head of JLL’s Leeds office, said: “Speaking on behalf of all four sponsors, it’s fantastic to see, as Yorkshire’s property market looks to be in recovery mode, that support for our charities continues to be as enthusiastic as ever with the event once again being a sell out!

“Office markets outside of London recovered strongly in 2013. As we highlighted at our recent Big 6 Offices Seminar, Leeds outpaced its five nearest city rivals outside of London (Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow) with the greatest number and volume of deals over 10,000 sq ft in 2013.

“There were 18 deals over 10,000 sq ft equating to over 510,000 sq ft, compared with just 7 deals in 2012 (191,000 sq ft).

“Looking out across the skyline I can see cranes again in Leeds city centre which is a good sign that the economy is moving in the right direction.

“For instance, the addition of two new floors being built at 21 Queen Street will increase the building to approximately 34,500 sq ft in whilst Evans Property Group is capitalising on the low supply levels by upgrading its Minerva offices on East Parade.

“While there is still further to go before occupational markets fully recover the limited Grade A supply will continue to drive rents for the very best space.

“On aggregate, we forecast growth of 2.2% per annum over 2014-2017 in the major UK cities. Looking ahead in Leeds, we anticipate modest rental growth over the course of 2014 with incentives steadily reducing.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .