The first half of 2019 saw take-up in Milton Keynes already exceed that achieved in 2018 as a whole, helped in part by Amazon’s pre-let of Altitude at Magna Park. Overall, 1.1m sq ft were let in Milton Keynes over the last six months, pushing down the availability rate to 7%.
Knowledge intensive businesses accounted for 50% of occupier activity in H1 2019. As the production of the new e-Mini gets underway at Cowley, Andretti Autosport has relocated its Formula E team to Banbury. Adding to this Oxford Nanopore started production at its new 34,500 sq ft facility at Harwell.
Bidwells activity in the wider East Anglia market reached a new high in H1 2019 with over 2m sq ft let or purchased, including Huawei’s new R&D manufacturing facility at Sawston, Cambridge for a new R&D manufacturing company.
Despite London continuing to dominate Europe’s tech investment activity, take up in the London office market fell below trend for the first time in two years, driven by stock shortages. In the West End supply now stands at its lowest level in a decade.
Norwich saw availability fall to 4.5% during H1 2019; its lowest level since 2007. Take-up remains at trend levels but the shortage of new floorspace coming forward is taking its toll on occupier choice in the city, particularly for Grade A space.
The first half of 2019 saw the availability of offices in Milton Keynes fall to its lowest rate since 2017. The pace of take-up over the last 12 months reflects the city’s continued status as the UK’s fastest growing economy driven by further productivity improvements associated with the expansion in high growth business sectors.
New PM Boris Johnson used his first speech outside No 10 to deliver an energetic new narrative around the UK economy. Those listening with an interest in Oxfordshire and science and technology will have sat up a number of times, writes Head of Oxford, Richard Todd.