Property agents are warning that Liverpool’s office market is stagnating amid a challenging market – and say the public sector needs to help reset the market to help boost rents and encourage development. The latest research from the shows 23,879 sq ft of transactions were completed in Q2 – down from a “buoyant” 95,905 sq ft of space in Q1. The forum, made up of property agents from across the city, says that while there is 900,000 sq ft of office space currently vacant in the city centre, only about 12% is Grade A accommodation, and only 7.
75% is located in the business district. Gabriel Davies, associate at Fisher German and chair of LOAF, said: “I think the successful figures for Q1 this year and Q4 in 2023 put a plaster over the issues we are now facing. “There has been some reasonable success with the gaming industry taking up office space, and continued churn in the professional services sector, but we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“The lack of brand-new Grade A offices is having a negative impact on the market, however, it isn’t as simple as ‘build it and they will come’. “Without having an underlying headline rent that allows for speculative office development, the city has seen a stagnation of new office space in the commercial district, apart from several refurbishment schemes. “A low headline rent in comparison to other regional cities means developers are looking elsewhere, coupled with the fact that best in class offices dri.