The Birmingham office market had an exceptional start to the year with BT committing to 283,000 sq ft at the new Three Snowhill scheme back in January – the biggest ever letting within a single building in the city. Furthermore, despite the onset of Covid-19, take-up for the entire first half was still up 20 per cent on the 10-year average.

So as we begin to ease out of lockdown and find ourselves entering the world of the ‘new normal’, what can we expect from the Birmingham office market over the coming months and even years?

Covid-19 has undoubtedly been the catalyst for the biggest experiment in homeworking the UK has ever seen and with work/life balance hitting the spotlight as a result of the pandemic, it is a great opportunity for Birmingham to attract more people to take advantage of the quality of life it offers.

The city is home to multiple high calibre universities, generating a strong talent pool, and if you couple this with the significant savings when it comes to cost of living it only adds further to its desirability for the younger generation.

Even before the pandemic, Birmingham was beginning to receive more movers from London than any other regional city, with nearly 8,000 people relocating in the last 12 months according to Centre for Cities, and the city is now attracting more people from the capital than it is losing – a figure we only expect to see increase as workers rethink their living circumstances as a result of Covid-19.

Additionally, Birmingham is at the forefront when it comes to attracting tech talent and investment and while it is impossible for any business to escape some impact of the virus, the tech sector is certainly proving to be more resilient than most.

The West Midlands is home to one of the largest tech clusters in the UK, contributing over £1.6 billion to the West Midlands’ economy, and even during lockdown plans were approved for a new £30 million, 120,000 sq ft development at the Innovation Birmingham hub – already the UK’s largest dedicated digital tech campus.

Birmingham is also home to a quarter of the UK’s gaming workforce, a sector that has been thrown full force into the spotlight in recent times due to its staggering, fast-paced growth, with the West Midlands region employing 3,500 people in the sector and counting.

The effects of a nationwide lockdown, combined with a greater desire for a more satisfying work/life balance, have made many of us selective about where we want to spend our working days. As Covid-19 reshapes the fundamentals of our working practices, and where they are located, Birmingham is perfectly placed to capitalise on these shifts and become the city of choice for graduates through to families and older workers.  

Further information

Contact Savills Birmingham