Greg Shutt, surveyor at Bruton Knowles Birmingham office comments that there are some who criticise the location of a high profile office redevelopment such as Baskerville House being outside the traditional office core of Colmore Row, efforts to alleviate the lack of available stock should be welcomed with open arms in their ability to attract footloose inward investment and indigenous occupiers.

It is encouraging to see that during the first half of 2006, longer-term schemes are moving forward at a pace, such as Ballymore’s Snow Hill mixed use development comprising some 800,000 sq ft of office, retail and leisure. As one of the largest city centre office led schemes in the UK outside of London, the city eagerly awaits work starting on site imminently.

Investment activity within the city centre and Edgbaston is still extremely active. Recent sales of Cobalt Square, City Plaza and Victoria Square House are testament to this along with office investments currently on the market, including Baskerville House and Catalyst Capitals’ Beaufort Court.

As seen in the last six months, there is no reason why the market will change greatly during the course of the next six months. If this trend continues for the rest of the year, we will see a significantly reduced take up of space within the city centre compared with last year, which saw some 500,000 sq ft let.

Meanwhile, I am confident rental levels will break the £30 per sq ft barrier with developments such as Abstract land’s Colmore Plaza and Frontier Estates’ Temple Point both poised to achieve new, headline figures. Again, the key driver behind potential new record rents in Birmingham city centre is the shortage of new grade A developments and pent-up demand. This does beg the question, ‘is a lack of available stock reducing occupier demand?’ and in my opinion, it certainly is.

In terms of occupiers looking for space within the city centre, it is great news to see the Gaming Commission have taken 26,000 sq ft at Victoria Square House – a significant letting for the city. Along with the Big Lotto’s circa 60,000 sq ft requirement, which is rumoured to have been satisfied, it is hoped that the first ‘Lyons Report’ relocations will open the floodgates for similar high profile moves.

There is little doubt that Birmingham has everything to offer blue chip businesses and government departments considering relocation. However, the big issue remains: unless we have the property infrastructure available for such prestigious occupiers, Birmingham may lose out to other regional players. Never before has the redevelopment of areas such as Eastside and other schemes been more important for the future success and prosperity of the city.