The Warrington & Environs office market recorded 370,168 sq ft of office take up in 2016, which consisted of 122 transactions. In contrast to 2015, the total take up of office space increased by 10%.

Simon Roddam of Warrington commercial property consultancy BE Group, and spokesperson for Manchester Office Agents Forum (MOAF), commented “2016 was another year dominated by small to medium size office transactions in the Warrington & Environs market. The average size deal was 2,985 sq ft, a similar figure averaged in 2015, which paints an immediate picture of how strong the smaller end of the office market is in Warrington.”

Simon Roddam added “Transactions of 8,000 to 11,000 sq ft made up a significant amount of take up in 2016. There were in total 10 transactions completed in the 8,000 to 11,000 sq ft size range. These included lettings to household names such as Muller, Galliford Try, Newsquest, and Taylor Wimpey to name a few.”

The largest transaction of 2016 was the re-letting of Allday House in Birchwood (CGI, pictured), which saw NDA take a new lease on the 52,124 sq ft headquarter building. 80% of the overall take up in 2016 were leasehold transactions, however there were 15 freehold transactions recorded totalling 77,684 sq ft, which was a 50% increase on office sales compared with the previous year.

The MOAF exists to promote better knowledge of the Manchester City Region office market providing accurate market statistics and informed market commentary.

Formed in 2009, its current members include CBRE, Canning O’Neill, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield, Edwards & Co, GVA, JLL, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton, Matthews & Goodman, OBI Property, Savills, TSG Property Consultants, WHR and BE Group.