Take-up

Q3 2022 take-up totalled 121,000 sq ft for the Edinburgh city centre market. Take-up was made up of 33 transactions, the largest volume of Q3 deals since 2015. The largest transaction was the 21,000 sq ft Grade A acquisition by Anderson Strathern at Capital Square.

Grade A lettings, totalling 69,000 ft, accounted for 57% of overall take-up in Q3 2022. This represented a marked improvement on the Q3 2021 Grade A proportion of 12%.

Supply

Total existing supply (excluding pipeline) at the end of Q3 stood at 760,000 sq ft. Of this total, approximately 245,000 sq ft was Grade A, albeit much of this is dated and out of keeping with modern office requirements. Of total availability, Savills considers only 50,000 sq ft of this to be prime.

On this basis, the prime vacancy rate stands at 0.5% and total Grade A availability at 2.7%.

Take-up by business sector

The Professional sector has been the most active so far in 2022, accounting for 32% of overall take-up. This has been spread across 13 transactions, seven of which were for Grade A space.

Elsewhere, the TMT sector has been the second most active sector in Q1–Q3 2022, recording 57,000 sq ft of take-up which equated to 22% of the overall total. The largest TMT acquisition so far in 2022 was the 12,000 sq ft Grade A letting to Dukosi at 1–7 Exchange Crescent.

Rents

There was no increase in the prime rent in Q3 2022 which currently stands in excess of £38 per square foot, although this is in part due to stock issues. That being said, the prime rent did grow by 7% in 2021 and has increased by 13% since 2016. Average Grade A rents have also grown significantly since 2016. So far in 2022, the average Grade A rent has been £34.18 per square foot – this is 16% above the pre-pandemic 2019 Grade A average of £29.50 per square foot.

Interested in other areas of the UK?

View all of our latest Q3 2022 Occupational Office Data research here.