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Considering how difficult it was to get take up stats from Manchester's office agents at the end of last year, I thought its all new singing and dancing office agents forum would release them to a fanfare.

The idea, floated this time last year, was Manchester would follow in the footsteps of their regional cousins and present a collective view of office take up from this January onwards.

But three months into the year and the fanfare has yet to sound as agents couldn't agree on a date in Q4 last year to gather and agree on the figures.

Needless to say, in that time, agents released their own figures, and CB Richard Ellis grabbed the headlines in February, reporting that take up in the city centre reached 830,000 sq ft. (EGi subscribers can read the story here). Other agents also released reports, all telling a different story.

 

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.

• Bedford

The town's Station Quarter comes under our microscope in this week's EG. The council is proposing a £130m regentation of the site but has yet to find a developer, or assemble large chunks of the site.

It's not the only large scale development trying to take flight in the town. Melanie Smith has also looked at the progress of St Modwen's Town Centre West. Last month the council extended its agreement with the developer presumably to give St Modwen some breathing room to get the 19-acre scheme going. Some are building such as Goodman and Unilever at the Colworth Science Park (pictured), although already has EEDA backing and two universities signed up. 

• Luton

Daniel Cunningham asks whether the long awaited renaissance of the town has ground to a halt. He analyses progress at Napier Park and Butterfields business park. 

• Industrial

Last year's take up is nearly half the 2008 level, and Daniel finds that when asked to name requirements agents draw a blank. That said, Canmoor which bought a portfolio of four indsutrial estates from SEGRO is looking to speculative develop. To find out why they think this is a good idea read this week's EG. 

The snow has got Focus in a festive mood again this week and in the mag we're already pretending its Christmas 2010. 

In the London market pages I've asked the capital's experts to cast their minds forward and tell us how they think they'll be summing up the market come December.

Up for discussion is the possibility of a hung parliament, and expiring planning permissions at Sellar Property's New London Bridge House more commonly known as Baby Shard, as well as phase 2 of Hammersmith Embankment.

Talk of rental growth is always on agents lips and indeed there's plenty of that in the predicitions. But, with the news today that both Australian bank Macquarie and law firm Stephenson Harwood have been shunted from newly occupied City schemes (EGi subscribers can read the story here) it seems some of their forecasts are already coming true.

In the south-west boroughs Battersea Power Station's future hangs on the Northen Line extension. Melanie Smith looks if the sums will add up. And Daniel Cunnigham asks what's next at Elizabeth House in Waterloo after planners rejected initial proposals. The naming of a new developer is long overdue and most are desperate to see its future crystallised.

Picture courtesy of anniemullinsuk on Flickr 

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.)

Overview
A look at regional offices and retail markets and their prospects.
Melanie Smith, Focus editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Chelmsford
An analysis of regeneration in the city.
Karen Day, freelance writer, 07971 671 369, karen.day@dsl.pipex.com

Regeneration - covering Basildon and Purfleet
A look at major development plans in the area.
Daniel Cunningham, senior features writer, 020 7911 1822, daniel.cunningham@rbi.co.uk

Industrial
A round up of local activity, looking at forecasts for the year ahead
Melanie Smith, Focus editorial assistant, 020 7911 1916, melanie.smith@rbi.co.uk

Tesco Bank has signed for a whopping 103,000 sq ft at Quorum Business Park near Newcastle, but in our North East Focus I ask what rent and incentives are landlords agreeing to in order to get deals like this done?

The North East's office market is in danger of turning into a bargain basement for occupiers, and ask what all this means for developers with prime stock on their hands in core Newcastle city centre locations.

Liz Morrell looks at the North East's retail market, and specifically Capital Shopping Centres' extension to its Eldon Square in Newcastle. CSC is on target to open the 410,000 sq ft extension fully let next February, but what is the cost to the rest of the city's retail scene.

Retail
Analysis of the market in key towns across the county
Liz Morrell, freelance writer, 01454 415 509, lizmorrell@drdatamail.co.uk

Industrial
Trends and forecasts for the market
Simon Jack, freelance writer, 01225 444 780, simon@sdjack.freeserve.co.uk

Offices & investment
A round up of office and investment activity in the region
Claire Robson, freelance writer, 07896 267707, robson.claire@hotmail.co.uk

There are signs the Cardiff investment market is frothing a bit, something that I've explored in this week's EG (there's more info on this below). But is it really a recovery, the cream of the crop as those with cash burning a hole in their pockets decide the market hit its lowest ebb or is that froth masking something more deathly sinister.

Peter Graham, director at Cardiff-based Stephenson Alexander, has been into the Cardiff investment vault and delved around in the figures to see if history can teach us anything, and he's spotted some interesting facts.

You can read the full analysis behind the bullet points below by clicking through on the "continue reading" link below but here are the highlights.  A quick health warning with these numbers. Graham stresses that the figures were put together before the recent, rapid yield compression seen in Cardiff offices market in just the last few weeks.

• Yields and the fall in value are higher today than in 1991, as valuations overheated in 2005-2007

• Property returns were higher in 1991

• Although the base rate was higher in 1991 there was more lending and people took this because proeprty returns were higher.

• Today there's more yield volatily and returns are unlikely to improve

• Invester may have got "scared" by the rapid fall away in the market but they have "short memory" syndrome

• Food store investment still offers a good return for little risk but it can't carry on forever
• Property yields will fall but investors have a resistance to yields and Graham predicts yields going to 5% in the near future. 

In this week's EG we've also looked at Cardiff's new headline offices rent 5 Callaghan Square - Stacey Meadwell asks what it really means for the market.
 
In Swansea, regen chiefs are dipping into the public purse in a hope of kicking off a revival but in Newport Melanie Smith finds there little evidence - bar a couple of car parks, and a refurbished shopping centre - of the city's renaissance launched 6 years ago.

Another grand scheme, St Athans is also hitting the buffers. David Thame analyses the reasons that the areospace park has failed to fly.

It's also Mipim Asia next week so Focus has cast its eye to the Far East. David Thame looks at what delegates can expect from the event as China's economic growth rate heads for double figures and big name Western investors look closely at its property investment market.
 
Picture from Flickr courtesy of Plindberg http://www.flickr.com/photos/plindberg/ / CC BY 2.0

A little while ago someone told me that the Kings Cross Central partnership was offering a private and secret tunnel linking one of the new offices with the tube at St Pancras to avoid you having to mix with the great unwashed.

Ever since I've been itching to see if its true.

Earlier this week I got my chance and was offered a tour around the frankly ginormous £2bn regeneration scheme. Accompanied by Stacey Meadwell and her video camera, above is what we found out.

Sadly, tales of a secret Mr Benn style tunnel are untrue although one of the buildings will have its own public tube entrance with a tunnel - however, for a price, director Robert Evans mysteriously hinted anything is possible.

In the video Evans admits the prelet to Sainsbury's has been "dragging on a bit' and he hints there might be another occupier in the wings that could be suitable for building and could draw a line under the Sainsbury's deal for them.