North West stock shows signs of promise

While the latest stats from Radius Data Exchange indicate that the North West is slightly behind the overall regional average for stock absorption across each of the three sectors, there is cause for optimism once the data is unpacked further. For instance, factoring in under-offer spaces to the retail analysis brings the region much closer in line with the national average at 2.8 years’ worth of stock remaining. Only the South East region currently houses a greater amount of retail space which is close to transacting, and so an imminent boost to this particular metric can be expected. In the office sector – a handful of individual schemes in Manchester are skewing this slightly which, once transacted, will give a far better picture of the North West’s absorption rate. There is no lack of active demand for quality office space in the region’s largest city – with Radius Data Exchange analysis showing 12-month rolling take-up above 1.1m sq ft at the end of Q1 2018, only the second time in the past three years that this has been the case. While active demand in the industrial sector appears to be behind the rest of the country, there is no shortage of confidence from developers that the region is a prime location for new stock, with industrial permitted space increasing by a whopping 52% year-on-year. Within this, there may be an opportunity within the smaller size band – as available units measuring below 25,000 sq ft are currently set to run out in around 1.8 years’ time at the current rate of demand, but permissions within this bracket lagged below the overall trend for the region, at an increase of just 13% year-on-year. To send feedback, e-mail graham.shone@egi.co.uk or tweet @GShoneEG or @estatesgazette To find out more about Radius Data Exchange, visit www.egi.co.uk/radiusdx