A Tyneside building surveyors and project manager is reporting a “significant” rise in commercial commissions — with this year’s half-yearly figure already outpacing the same period in 2014.
Silverstone directors, Ben Hunter (left) and Richard Farrey.
Newcastle-based Silverstone Building Consultancy — a specialist firm of chartered surveyors targeting the local and national commercial property sector — says improving market conditions are fuelling both developer and investor confidence.
“Demand for pre-acquisition surveys is on the increase across all sectors,” explained director Ben Hunter, whose firm has doubled the number of surveys it undertook this year between January and June.
“A few years ago the demand for acquisition surveys was only a fraction of what it is now, with instructions mainly coming from occupiers looking to buy their own premises,” Hunter said. “Now there has been a significant shift in the market with more investors making acquisitions, often with incoming tenants lined up.”
Silverstone is also reporting that 50 per cent of its pre-acquisition surveys are now coming from investors outside of the North-East, underling evidence that regional markets are looking increasingly attractive to investors.
Fellow Silverstone director, Richard Farrey, director continued: “With London’s commercial property market experiencing an increase in appetite from overseas investors, UK investors are looking outside of the capital for favourable returns.
“The UK’s regions offer the most attractively priced assets and forecasts show that in 2015 regional property portfolios will deliver higher yields than those in London.”
Gainsborough House on Newcastle’s historic Grey Street was a recent Silverstone commission.
Silverstone has recently undertaken building surveys and overseen refurbishment work on Gainsborough House, a 26,000 sq ft mixed use building on Grey Street; Melbourne House, an office building in Jesmond, and industrial units in both Sunderland and Durham. In the centre of Newcastle it has surveyed Melbourne House, on Melbourne Street, and one of the city’s biggest former department stores.
The rise in building surveys has also led to an increase in refurbishment instructions for the firm, which has found investors keen to upgrade properties in order to secure new tenants in an increasingly competitive marketplace. During the first half of 2015 Silverstone has worked on refurbishment instructions amounting to over £1.5m.
“In our experience landlords who are in a position to invest capital into vacant premises are much more likely to achieve a sale or letting,” said Hunter. “By putting in place a well thought out refurbishment programme we are able to help optimise the position of the building in the marketplace.
“We are finding that with the improving market conditions landlords are now more willing to invest money in buildings to get them let.”
