As leading property specialists, we saw increasing numbers of commercial property transactions towards the end of 2013, and in the first weeks of the new year, but prices remain flat. By contrast, our rural team have seen land prices quadruple since 1991.
There is demand from businesses wanting to buy their own premises but the supply of premium office space is exceeding demand across the East Midlands.
Tenants for Grade A office buildings may be hard to find, but more modest properties that are reasonably priced are likely to find buyers because of Leicestershire's large pool of prospective owner-occupiers.
Property is always seen as a safe place to invest.
As commercial property agents in the East Midlands, we have seen a slight improvement in the local office market in terms of the number of transactions but as yet there are no price increases. Nottingham continues to outperform Leicester, and the market in Derby is improving.
There is a chicken and egg situation. Does the fact that there isn't a great deal to choose from deter people, or is the space not there because of lack of demand?
With retail, we saw a mini bubble in retail premises 12 months ago but demand is confined to provincial towns as city centres have yet to adapt. There is a dynamic change that means catering for people who still want to go to shop, accessing high quality customer service, premium end goods that you can’t buy on the web, and creating a coffee culture.
With a commercial portfolio of £19 million, and managing £12 million of development land with 50 partners and staff, including nine surveyors, Andrew Granger & Co is the leader commercial property agent in Leicestershire. Get in touch!