As part of Redwood Consulting’s retained role for Lambert Smith Hampton (‘LSH’), last week we promoted the firm’s latest research analysing the Sheffield Market – ‘The Sheffield Office Pulse’ – which highlighted that, although office demand across Sheffield remains subdued as a result of the EU Referendum, owner occupiers are seeing value in its out-of-town market.

The team at Redwood assisted in the creation of a news story and the release to media of LSH’s latest edition of the Sheffield Office Market Pulse report. The research provides its investor, developer and occupier clients with a detailed insight across the office market across the northern city. The statistics showed that activity in the city centre improved in Q3 with a total of 17,750 sq ft of lettings. However, it was the out-of-town market that accounted for the lion’s share of take-up for the second quarter running, at 26,974 sq ft. Utilising its breadth of local and trade media contacts, Redwood secured coverage in trade publications such as CoStar, Property Investor Today and Commercial News Media and in local publications such as The Business Desk, the Yorkshire Post and The Star.

The research detailed that total take-up across the city centre and out-of-town markets combined amounted to 44,724 sq ft – a 32 per cent increase on the previous quarter – but a fall of 50 per cent on the same period last year. Despite the slight increase in new lettings, office take-up in the region still remains below the five-year quarterly average.

The firm found that office supply across the city centre and out-of-town markets has remained constant during Q3. However, grade A supply in the city centre is expected to increase sharply in 2017 due to the completion of Sheffield Digital Campus and the £5 million refurbishment of Steel City House, which will inject over 180,000 sq ft of high-quality office accommodation. Out-of-town, the continued steady take-up and lack of new speculative development has caused a shortage of stock, with areas such as Meadowhall and Don Valley proving to be popular locations.