Despite difficult economic conditions the Leicestershire commercial property market held firm last year, raising expectations for 2013. The forecast comes following a gathering of property professionals to appraise the state of the market and assess the prospects for the coming year, the Leicester Mercury reports.
The Innes England annual market Insite report reveals that, while take-up of industrial and office properties fell during 2012, projects currently under construction – together with a number of large investments – give cause for optimism.
Peter Doleman, of Innes England, said; “Leicestershire saw a solid performance across all sectors in 2012 and is looking forward to an exciting 2013.”
He continued to say that developments like the expansion of the Mira Technology Park and Abbey Lane Science Park will bring greater opportunities to the market.
While he remains concerned about the lack of good quality property in the industrial sector, Mr Doleman said there was growing demand for premises over 20,000 sq ft and that this could encourage further development.
Of the total amount of industrial property in the county, only 11 per cent was described as Grade A. In the case of office space this figure rose to 22 per cent.
In terms of office take-up, a large imbalance emerged between city centre and out of town developments. Of all the transactions completed during 2012, only 24 deals were in urban locations compared to 95 on office or business parks.
Currently the city mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, is conducting a study to earmark sites for Grade A city centre office developments to attract more businesses into Leicester city centre. This initiative was praised by Mr Doleman.
“The mayor’s policy is a very positive thing to see and he is right to promote a policy that allows more flexibility rather than restricting development to an office quarter,” he said.
There was also some discussion about the problems facing the retail market at the event. Mathew Hannah, a director of Innes England, conceded that 2012 had been another “bleak” year for the sector and that retail vacancy rates in the county now stood at 14.5 per cent compared with just 3.5 per cent in 2008.
However, he expressed confidence that many of the vacancies caused by the failure of high street chains could be filled by independent retailers. For consumers, he said, the current economic conditions had become the “new normal.”
