Recently in Leeds Category

 

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.

Apple seems to have created the sort of new store excitement most retailers dream of. The iPod to iPhone maker attracted crowds when it opened in St David's 2 shopping centre in Cardiff last year and now the Apple-effect has hit Newcastle.

Ahead of today's opening of the £170m redevelopment and extension of Capital Shopping Centre's Eldon Square, in which Apple has taken a store, lanes were erected in anticipation of queues of shoppers. But even that was not enough with reports of queues forming just to join the queue.

When Drivers Jonas opened its Leeds office in 2007 it really surprised the Yorkshire market. The Leeds agency market had become bloated and 25% of DJ's order book already came from Yorkshire even without an office in the region.

John Weir, who had been at DJ's Manchester planning and development division, was hugely aware of this when he set up the Leeds office. He said at the time that DJ's consciously shied away from investment and agency because"there are already a lot of mouths to feed in a market the size of Leeds."

As a result the immediate impact on Leed's property scene will be low. As one local property player said: "From a Leeds perspective the Drivers Jonas offices has focused on market consultancy, on the planning and regeneration side rather than agency and in that sense I don't anticipate it will change as much as say, in their City office."

However, over the longer term Deloitte already has an office in the Yorkshire capital (see our interactive map for a complete list)...

For Manchester reaction click here.

For Birmingham reaction click here.

For Cambridge reaction recorded at our Focus reception on Friday click here.

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.

So some cities have woken up to positive news this morning thanks to research by Centre for Cities but then some haven't.

Brighton, Milton Keynes, Reading, Cambridge and Edinburgh - are ranked as the top five centres "to watch" as the economy recovers because they have strong private sectors, high levels of entrepreneurship, highly educated workforces, and a large share of knowledge-intensive jobs to succeed after the recession.

But languishing at the bottom of the table and described as having "a tough outlook" are: Stoke, Burnley, Barnsley, Newport and Doncaster. Weaker business bases, loss of private sector jobs prior to the recession, and low business start ups are among the reasons given.

Not a great start to the week particularly for Yorkshire which has two towns in the bottom five: Barnsley and Doncaster. Neighbouring Humber city Hull also features heavily having had a large number of job losses.

ESTATES GAZETTE YORKSHIRE FOCUS

 FEBRUARY 27, 2010 ISSUE

Retail

A look at the regions key schemes and projects

Liz Morrell, freelance writer, 01454 415 509, lizmorrell@drdatamail.co.uk

 

Offices

Analysis of the current market conditions

James Graham, freelance writer, 0161 9218177, jamesgraham909@hotmail.com

 

Occupiers

A guide to occupiers and what they want

James Graham, freelance writer, 0161 9218177, jamesgraham909@hotmail.com

 

Deadline for receipt of editorial information is 1st February

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.)

It's been a long, long time since I got wind of someone proposing any major development never mind a tower, so this one's worth noting.

Plans have been launched in Leeds for a 35 storey tower at the top of Vicar Lane. Yorkshire-based Manor Property Group bought the site a few days ago and wants to put 600 Carey Jones designed student apartments on it and call it Manor Point.

The cost is £30m although there's little talk about funding or timescales.

In its favour the student accomodation market has been slightly more stable and the council will undoubtedly be keen to see development flourish. From a planning point of view the site is in within what the developer calls "a string of tall building developments around the A58M."

Yorkshire's TheBusinessDesk.com is reporting that Leeds Arena has been given a £9.9m lifeline from governnment to push the project forward.

It's an interesting move given the government turned down a bid from Yorkshire Forward to put £18m into the pot back in October saying the project didn't provide value for money.

Yorkshire Forward went back to have another look at its sums, heavily tweaked and trimmed the amount of public money it needed and came in at a figure a hair's breadth away from the £10m mark at which funding needs central government approval. According to the council's website the total cost of construction is £59m. Include land purchases and the figure for development rises to nearer £80m.

 

A few pics of the launch party at Granary Wharf, Leeds came in today. The 'do' last week was to officially launch the commercial units at ISIS Waterside Regeneration's £40m scheme. The developers have got nearly 15, 000 sq ft of retail to let and have taken the brave stance of saying they're keen to keep the area free of high street chains. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.