Recently in Bristol Category

Lambert Smith Hampton has topped the EGi Deals Database league table for 2009. The table is the culmination of a years work from EGi researchers tracking completed deals across the UK. It shows that LSH not only topped the national table but also saw off competition from other national rivals to top the Office and Industrial sectors league tables for the number of deals done.

CB Richard Ellis were crowned winners in the Retail & Leisure category.

The top five National winners were:

1. Lambert Smith Hampton
2. CB Richard Ellis
3. DTZ
4 Savills
5. King Sturge

Full results for 2009 can be found by clicking here. Regional EGi deals database winners are announced at our Focus receptions. For Bristol, Swindon & Bath's competition results which were announced last Friday click here.

Development was the hot topic among Bristol, Swindon and Bath's property fraternity at our annual reception in Bristol on Friday. Developers were out in force among the 60 or so guests and keen to talk about starting on projects in the area.

HDG Mansur's Chris Read was as bullish as ever about its Finzels Reach scheme in Bristol and has promised a site tour so I can see the work that is going on (keep an eye on this blog for a full report). And Muse was equally bullish about its Union Square project in Swindon although wouldn't be tied down on an actual start date.

EG's editor Damian Wild announced the winners of the EGi Deal's Database competition: Alder King and King Sturge and after all that excitement is was time for a bite to eat and a catch up on the rest of the market gossip.

A selection of pictures from the event are below, more will be added as they become available and the synopsis for the Bristol, Swindon and Bath Focus is available here

Bristol offices
Analysis of market strength and prospects for 2010
Stacey Meadwell, Focus editor - 020 7911 1819, stacey.meadwell@estatesgazette.com

Industrial
Analysis of market strength for 2010
Melanie Smith, editorial assistant - 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@estatesgazette.com

The market (includes Swindon & Bath)
Analysis of the market strength in the office and retail sectors
Elaine Cavanagh, freelance writer - 01225 444 875, elaine@jackcav.freeserve.co.uk

People & Companies
A look at the agency landscape and developer strategies as the economy starts pulling out of recession
Daniel Cunningham, senior writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com
 

 

Regional rents may be over the worst. Jones Lang LaSalle has issued what at first looks like an up-beat release for developers desperate to get cracking on those building plans (read the full report here). But read on, the agency goes on to say that it's a shortage of supply and definitely not a growth in demand that's pushing up those rents.

Look at its office clock and that bottom left quadrant, which shows rents accelerating is sadly and totally empty. From a regional point of view only a handful are inching past the 4pm rents bottoming out mark.

Edinburgh and Leeds started to fall later so are behind the cycle and only just beginning to catch up now, says JLL. Birmingham fell first so is already past the worst.

Bristol's Cabot Circus has given the city's skyline an iconic glass canopy roof but ever wondered how landlord the Bristol Alliance keeps it clean? Well I found out on Friday when I was in the city and it certainly isn't a job for those who are nervous of heights.


The centre, which will be two years old in the Autumn, was busy with shoppers, although it was a bit quieter at Quakers Friars which is where the posher shops are.

Sadly the new development makes The Mall look, well, rather dated but there were still plenty of people around that end of Broadmead.

Bristol's property fraternity packed out the Wessex Suite in the city's Thistle hotel last night for the annual BPAA dinner. Numbers were up by a 100 on last year and whether it was the relief of getting over 2009 or the flowing wine, there was certainly a lively atmosphere.

Out-going BPAA president Chris Haworth of Alder King had the honour of choosing the after dinner speaker and although there were a few groans from land-lovers when they heard it was yachstman Pete Goss MBE, he turned out to be an able raconteur, captivating the audience with tales of near death experiences on the open seas and head-butting former French president Jacques Chirac.

And while the prospect of an accompanying slide show would have the most patient people running for the bar, the 450 guests couldn't take their eyes off the screens, but then you don't expect to see images of gashed elbows and broken legs among the ones of boats fighting impossibly huge waves.

At least it meant there was a good excuse for looking a bit green about the gills at the end of the night.

Chris then handed over the chains of office to new president Andrew Batchelor of Hartnell Taylor Cook. Andrew has been known to run the odd marathon so perhaps the speaker next year will be someone with their feet firmly on the ground.

Look out for a report in next Saturday's EG.

 Photos by Martin Chainey.

How do Drivers Jonas and Deloitte's match up? UK offices of Deloitte's are in blue. Drivers Jonas are in red.

View Deloitte and Drivers Jonas' offices in the UK in a larger map

Well it certainly stopped conversations about the state of the market dead in its tracks. When the news flash that 285-year old property firm Drivers Jonas was merging with accountancy giant Deloitte appeared first thing Friday morning, tongues immediately started wagging.

Deloitte has comparatively small property team of around 40 but Drivers Jonas will no doubt be keen to capitalise on the global reach it will have come the mergers conclusion in March. The merger will give it a presence in a number of new UK cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Newcastle. And with Deloitte acting for 99 firms out of the FTSE 100 it also gives the property firm access to a potentially huge client base in its existing markets.

So what does the market think? The Focus desk canvassed opinion in key cities across the UK and over the next few posts talks to agents and Drivers Jonas staff about the implications of the merger in their market. 

For Manchester reaction click here.

For Leeds reaction click here.

For East of England reaction recorded at our reception in Cambridge on Friday click here.

For Birmingham reaction click here.

The Focus desk is always hearing stories of agents going the extra mile in these tough times, but agents at King Sturge's Bristol office feel like they might be being taken for a ride.

King Sturge celebrates its 250th birthday this year and to mark the occasion it is holding an Olympic torch style bike ride between all of its UK offices.

However, while divvying up the country into ride-able chunks it seems some agents are going to be considerably more saddle sore than others.

Mark Bourne, head of the City office, seems to have lucked in having been tasked with riding the leg between the City and the West End, a distance of just under 3 miles.

A rather less smug Jeremy Richards seemed shocked to find out his office would be asked to ride between their work in Bristol and the Plymouth office. The distance is a whopping 120 miles away, and completely misses a baton change over at the Exeter office. Ouch!

Is this a literal payback possibly for regional agents boasting they don't see the peaks and troughs of London's market?

Picture from Flickr by D'Arcy Norman

There were some nervous looks at King Sturge's Warwick Street, W1 HQ this morning. Not from the presenters waiting to reveal the company's property predictions for 2010, as you might imagine, but more from those colleagues who'd made the journey in from the regions and who had half an eye on window looking for signs of snow.

But with the sky still clear the presenters plunged into the highlights of their latest report and here are a few of the most interesting:

* The gap between London's office market and the rest of the country will widen as the capital experiences a bit of a recovery in rents this year while the regions will be slower to recover. This has to be tempered by the fact that London's rents declined 35-40% from peak to trough compared to 7-10% outside the capital

* Canary Wharf is picked out as the London's hotspot with office vacancy expected to fall into single figures this year

* Some speculative development will start in London this year as the supply pipeline diminishes

* Regional office rents are expected to fall further this year but not at the same rate as 2009. Bristol and Manchester are expected to lead the recovery after 2010.

* Birmingham and Leeds are highlighted as giving the most concern the reason being their oversupply of office space and reliance on the public sector

Naturally the Focus desk will be watching all of these cities to see if King Sturge's prediction ring true. (We are also watching the window for the first signs of snow.)

Regeneration big wigs from around the region are off to Wembley today to put forward their case for hosting the 2018 World Cup.

Whether they'll be bombing down the motorways in a team bus, their city colours proudly flying out of the back window is debatable but only one can hit the back of the net and score not just the honour of bringing footie home but the economic boost of 100,000s of visitors.

It was all smiles and rip-roaring speeches today but debates behind the scenes about stadium development have been a little more complex. Clearly many had hoped to have venues already coming out of the ground as part of larger grand regeneration plans which have since hit the buffers.

Amongst the hubris today, little was said about the money to fund them or the developer appetite to deliver them. Below we assess each city in turn and take a look what the local press is saying:

Birmingham: Plans for a City of Birmingham stadium had seemed to wither on the vine. The Birmingham Post reports that these may now be being reignited. It follows a long on, then off again, proposal to build a Super Casino as part of a new stadium. This was eventually abandoned by the council which opted for the NEC as a Super Casino site. before the government kicked all Super Casino plans into the long grass.
 
London: the Olympic Legacy Company was still debating last week whether to retain the Olympic Stadium's 80,000-seat capacity. Paul Norman's Olympics blog says a decision would need to be made shortly.