Town is a Property Hotspot - 18/04/2008
The company, which works with more than 97 per cent of the UK's serviced office space providers and landlords, analyses its own extensive brokerage data on an annual basis to provide an interesting and timely snapshot of the country's commercial property market.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it was Central and greater London and the commuter towns along the M4 corridor which featured prominently in the officebroker.com top ten last year. Birmingham, however, took pride of place, outside of London, with a 41 per cent increase in the number of enquiries for service office space in 2007 compared to the previous year.
Watford made it into the officebroker.com Top 10 Commercial property hotspots at number ten, reflecting the strength of demand for serviced office space in the city. Jim Venables, Managing Director of officebroker.com said: "Watford is just 16 miles North West of London's centre, has excellent commuter links and is a very popular place for businesses. Major companies such as Camelot Group and Costco have head offices in the town and our figures show that revenue from | serviced office space in Watford in 2007 increased by some 62 per cent compared to 2006."
Jim’s views are echoed by David Hall, associate director of Forsyth Business Centres. He said: "Forsyth opened a Business Centre on Clarendon Road in December 2004 and since then occupancy levels have risen year on year. When Forsyth were looking for suitable locations for expanding its network of business centres, Watford met all of our criteria and we were fortunate to find a property in a key position.'' He adds: "The Forsyth Centre at Watford is twinned with its sister development Forsyth@Euston in London. Occupiers at either centre can benefit from preferential rates at both locations, making it an attractive option for commuters who need touch down desks or meeting rooms at both locations".
As perhaps expected, the areas that received the highest number of enquiries included all of greater London, followed by Birmingham and then Liverpool. offlcebroker.com also saw a high number of enquiries during 2007 for
serviced office space in Cambridge, Nottingham, Warrington, Cardiff, Bristol and of course Watford.
Launched in 2001 by entrepreneurs Jim Venables and Andy Haywood, officebroker.com has grown into a multi-million pound enterprise with offices in die UK and US, and plans to launch a division in Hong Kong in 2008. Group turnover during the period April 2007 to April 2008 is expected to be in excess of £6 million.
Jim Venables says: "The serviced office sector in die UK continues to thrive and landlords looking to let space in Watford, Birmingham, London or any indeed any other area in the UK can contact officebroker.com for national and regional sales and marketing support.
"2007 also saw the launch of the new officebroker.com Insight Consultancy Service. "We have acquired considerable and valuable market data since we first started trading in 2001.
"By using this data, and our own in-depth and regional knowledge of die sector, we are able to offer advice to developers looking into the serviced office sector, providing them with tailored reports for their chosen locations throughout the UK and beyond."
