UltraPing Blog

The only UK city that witnessed an increase in the prime office space rent in the year 2009 has been Cardiff. According to a new survey conducted by Knight Frank, other than Cardiff, only Newport and Swansea reported a positive trend and are expected to witness a rise in the prime office space rent during end of 2009 and beginning of 2010.

The survey also suggested that even in Cardiff, the first high rents of £21 were seen only in the middle of the third quarter of the year, when a top architectural firm, B3 Burgress announced the lease of over 4,000 sq ft office area located in Cardiff Callaghan Square scheme. However, this was not the only huge deal in the area as the law firm, M&A Solicitors had entered into a similar deal last month, whereby they rented a building under the 3 Assembly Square scheme for same rent. The desk space rented in the latter case was over 10,000 sq ft.

This is still not to say that the deals have been absolute win-win for the landlords as some of the landlords had to offer as much as over 30 months of free stay for tenants, who entered into a contract for over ten years. Further according to the chief of commercial research at Knight Frank, Claire Higgins, even though the areas around London are expected to see a gradual rise in the office space rent, London itself might take some time in wake of the after effects of recession. She also added that the prime office rents are more likely not to change.