Newcastle’s top office agent revealed

Knight Frank has ended Cushman & Wakefield/DTZ’s three-year run at the top of the Newcastle office league table following a 50% year-on-year upswing in the amount of space it disposed, according to EG’s Regional Offices Research. In the 12 months to the end of July 2017, Knight Frank acted jointly on the largest deal – 21,000 sq ft to Eldon Insurance at 2 St James Gate – and was the sole agent on a 15,000 sq ft prelet at the emergent Live Works development. It means C&W has slipped back to second position where it finds LSH hot on its heels, following a 12 months in which the latter acted on two 19,000 sq ft deals. Overall, deal volumes and numbers were up on the preceding 12 months, meaning the market has returned to the level of buoyancy it enjoyed prior to a disappointing 2015/16. Going up LSH doubled its previous year’s total for space transacted thanks in large part to the sale of the former Open University building. Going down A 10,000 sq ft dip in volumes combined with the rest of the market pulling its socks up has seen C&W drop to second place. Key stats 320,000 sq ft – Total space disposed. Up 19% on 270,000 sq last year 4,091 sq ft – Average deal size. Up 1.8% on 4,017 16% – Deal numbers increased from 67 to 78 94% – Top 10 agents accounted for 94% of take-up, down 2% on last year 21,161 sq ft – Largest letting. 2 St James Gate to Eldon Insurance Services in joint deal by BNP Paribas, Knight Frank and Sanderson Weatherall