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Low rental costs helping market
The Bank of England said today the commercial property sector remained on the critical list, despite the dismal diagnosis improving for the rest of the economy.
But on Teesside, developer Mandale - which entered the Sunday Times Top 100 list of best performing privately owned companies this week - said business was booming.
The Stockton firm, which recently agreed three ten-year leases with occupants at its new trade park off Portrack Lane, said judicious pricing of developments had helped the local market withstand the worst of the industry’s sharp downturn.
Stephen Rose, commercial sales and lettings manager at Mandale said: “In other areas of the country developers have charged sizeable rents for accommodation built in city centre locations. In this region, there have been more out-of-town developments and because the rental costs haven’t been as high, the market hasn’t fallen as much as in other areas of the country.
“In my experience, local developers are still finding occupants for their schemes”.
His optimism is backed by the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Commercial Property Survey, which said the balance of surveyors reporting demand for commercial property in the first three months of the year had remained unchanged in the North-east, while nationally it had fallen at the fastest pace for more than six years.
