Q3 figures from Manchester Office Agents Forum

Third quarter office take-up in Manchester city centre was up year-on-year by 11% from 179,930 sq ft to 200,377 sq ft, according to the Manchester Office Agents Forum.

A total of 70 deals averaging 2,862 sq ft were recorded in the third quarter. Key Manchester city centre office deals included Jacobs, who took 23,526 sq ft of space at Number One First Street, and the letting of 11,778 sq ft to Kelway at The Peninsula. Another key deal was a pre-letting for 17,000 sq ft to Mediacom at 1 Hardman Street in Spinningfields.

In south Manchester, Q3 2013 take-up was 169,675 sq ft while the same period in 2012 recorded 243,480 sq ft. The same trend is seen in the year to date figures which show a total take up so far of 439,449 sq ft compared to 466,922 sq ft in 2012. South Manchester lettings to date are 6% lower than they were last year.

The largest transaction in South Manchester was the 21,500 sq ft letting of Southgate One in Handforth to ADP. In addition, Lawson House was purchased by owner occupier FK Construction in a deal that backs a general trend of increasing activity in the freehold market.

The Salford Quays market also experienced a substantial increase in activity, with 23,152 sq ft let in Q3 2013 compared with 6,244 sq ft in Q3 2012. Take up at the end of the 3rd quarter 2013 was 96,051 sq ft compared to a total 2012 take up of 85,523 sq ft.

Warrington and Birchwood had a strong third quarter, with 144,872 sq ft let. The figure for the same quarter last year was 61,736 sq ft, an increase of 134% increase. The largest letting was at Renaissance House, Centre Park – 38,759 sq ft. Martin Dawes Systems have taken The Point at Birchwood Point, totaling 30,072 sq ft.

Total take-up in the year to date across Greater Manchester and Warrington was 1,525,534 sq ft.

James Dickinson, director at Canning O'Neill and spokesperson for MOAF, said: "The North West office market continues to see a healthy level of demand as evidenced by the figures above.

"With improving macro economic conditions, we expect the trend to continue during the last quarter of the year and total take up figures will hopefully show an improvement in most sectors."

The Manchester Office Agents Forum exists to promote better knowledge of the Manchester City Region office market providing accurate market statistics and informed market commentary.

Formed in 2009, its current members include CBRE, Canning O'Neill, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ, Deloitte, Edwards & Co, GVA, Jones Lang LaSalle, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton, Matthews & Goodman, OBI Property, P3 Property Consultants, Savills, TSG Property Consultants and WHR.