April 30, 2018
Commercial property lending surged in the second half of 2017
Commercial property lending in the UK surged at the end of last year, according to the latest figures from Cass Business School. New commercial property lending overall reached £44.5bn for the whole year, equalling figures for the previous year. Commercial lending had dropped by 24 per cent in the first half of the year, however, the second half of 2017 was much busier, adding another £26.8bn in new lending. The total value of loan books identified by the CASS research increased by four per cent to £199bn by the end of the year, including both drawn and undrawn amounts. The research from Cass showed that non-bank lenders were actually the most active group, increasing their market share of new loans to 14 per cent from 10 per cent a year earlier. In total, they wrote £6bn of new loans of which 60 per cent was sourced from insurance and pension funds
Take up of commercial office leases in London’s West End had its strongest start to the year since 2012, with the banking and finance sector continuing to actively seek space, new figures from CBRE have revealed. The amount of office space under offer on in Central London at the end of Q1 2018 stood at 3.2m sq ft, representing an increase of 6 percent on the previous quarter and showing a 3 percent increase on the same point last year. Take-up in Central London reached 2.8m sq ft in Q1 2018, with its largest deal boasting a 65,900 sq ft letting to WS Atkins at Nova North in Victoria. Availability in Central London increased by 7 percent to 14.3m sq ft but that is still below the total 12 months ago. A total of 1.1m sq ft of development and refurbishment space completed in Q1. A further 2.3m sq ft is expected to complete before the end of the year, of which 54 percent has already been committed to be leased. By the end of the quarter, 9.1m sq ft was being actively sought by occupiers, primarily from the banking and finance sector (26 percent) and creative industries sector (24 percent).
Technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) companies are continuing to play a prominent role within Edinburgh’s office market, accounting for approximately 30 percent of transactions in the city. But rising demand for Grade A office space in Edinburgh by a variety of organisations, including coworking, private and public sector tenants has fuelled significant occupier demand during the first quarter of 2018, according to analysis by property consultancy, Knight Frank. The latest commercial property figures show approximately 460,000 sq. ft. of new occupier requirements came onto the market in the first three months of the year from companies looking to lease office space in Edinburgh. 
