Swindon’s commercial property market has ended the year with a good post Brexit bounce back, with recovering occupier demand in all three main sectors – retail, office and industrial – and a growing shortage of high quality property becoming increasingly apparent.
That’s the message from commercial property expert Andrew Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick & Co, a local contributor to the Commercial Property Market Survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
“The new food hub currently under construction in the Brunel Centre, Swindon, has five restaurant operators signed up already for its proposed new 16,000 sq ft food court,” said Andrew.
“Already open is the 14,000 sq ft Buzz gym, providing 24/7 gym and fitness facilities in the town centre. Whilst 2017 will come with plenty of challenges, we are cautiously optimistic for Wiltshire’s commercial property market.”
Nationally, the survey reports investment enquiries rising across all sectors, with flatter demand from occupiers for offices and retail property, but stronger demand for industrial/warehouse properties.
This has led to an increase in incentives available to tenants in the office and retail property sectors for the last two quarters, for the first time since 2013.
In the industrial sector, the shortage of available properties is the dominant factor, with supply having fallen for 18 consecutive quarters.
