Demand Barometer: What occupiers want – August 2024

The industrial and retail sectors are now almost neck and neck in terms of interest levels from potential occupiers, according to the latest figures from EG’s Propertylink listings site. The Demand Barometer for August gives a full breakdown of enquiry levels by percentage, showing the types of property and the locations that are prompting interested parties to either pick up the phone or send an email. Sector overview Industrial is still just about the most in-demand use type across the whole of the UK, although its lead over retail has shrunk to just 0.2 percentage points. It is a sharp narrowing of a gap which stood at almost 8 points just five months ago. August represented industrial’s smallest share of enquiries on Propertylink for the year to date, while for retail it was the highest share so far. The office sector overall is down by 0.4 percentage points on the previous month, although its 15.2% share of enquiries is the sector’s joint second-highest figure of the year so far, taking it level with June. Sector demand by region The South East, Greater London, the East of England and Scotland are the most popular regions, with percentages of enquiries on Propertylink across all three major use types in double figures. In offices, there were drops in share compared with the previous month for the South East, Greater London and the East of England. By contrast, Scotland saw an increase of more than 5 percentage points, while the West Midlands saw a marked increase that took it from 4.3% in July to 8.2% in August. There was change at the top in retail, where the East of England overtook both the South East and Greater London to become the country’s most enquired-after region for shops. The East of England was up by more than 4 percentage points, while Greater London, which was July’s clear leader, was down by more than 5 points. The South West and the East Midlands also saw healthy upswings in retail enquiries. The South East continues to generate the highest proportion of industrial enquiries although, along with Greater London and the East of England, its percentages were down on the previous month. Scotland and the West Midlands, however, saw respective increases of 2.6 and 2.1 points. Regional cities Glasgow continues to go from strength to strength as the city with the most Propertylink enquiries outside London. It saw its share increase for the third month in a row and now accounts for 16% of all enquiries across the major regional cities, which is the highest total reached by anywhere so far this year. Edinburgh saw an upswing of 2.2 percentage points, although this was not enough to overtake Birmingham, which remains the UK’s second most sought after city with 11.1% of all enquiries. Key movers It was a good month for Scotland, with Aberdeen managing to join Glasgow and Edinburgh in increasing its share of Propertylink enquiries. In northern England, Manchester managed to arrest its decline with a 0.6 percentage point increase following a fall in share from 4.5% to 2.2% between June and July. However, there were dips in share for Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Liverpool, while Sheffield remained level with its July total. August was a good month for the East Midlands cities, with Leicester and Nottingham up by 1.2 and 0.6 points respectively. There were gains in share in the South for both Brighton and Portsmouth, while Bristol and Southampton went in the opposite direction. Cardiff was also down slightly on its percentage in July. EG’s demand insights are powered by activity across our industry-leading commercial property listings platform – Propertylink Main photo © Analogicus/Pixabay