Royal London letting provides lift for Glasgow office market

Royal London, the life and pensions mutual, has taken space in the centre of Glasgow in a boost for the embattled office property market.

Royal London, the life and pensions mutual, has leased the lower ground floor at Graft, 241 West George Street, Glasgow, for a two-year term.

The firm, represented by Lambert Smith Hampton, has leased the lower ground floor at Graft, 241 West George Street, for a two-year term.

Joint letting agents Ryden and Avison Young acted on behalf of the landlord, City Site Life.

The deal follows shortly after the previous flexible lease agreement with utility giant SSE, which acquired the office space to fulfil a short-term contract.

Jim McCain from City Site Life said: “With the current uncertainty in the office market due to the pandemic we believe that the flexible offer provided by Graft fits perfectly into the pattern for the ‘new working norm’.

“On the back of this success we plan to roll out the same format on the ground floor suite of the building.”

Tim Jacobsen of Ryden said: “As we continue through increasingly uncertain times, properties such as Graft, where the landlord has gone to the expense of extensively fitting out office space to remove the cost and hassle factor from the tenants, are likely to capitalise.”

A Royal London spokesperson added: “This property is in an ideal location close to our current office.”

Recent research from property firm CBRE found that take-up for the Glasgow office market totalled 86,615 square feet during the third quarter of 2020, a 76 per cent drop from the same period in 2019 and 66 per cent down on the third-quarter, five-year average.

This brings the total take-up for the year so far to 343,359 sq ft, which is 48 per cent down on the same period in 2019.

Despite a modest level of take-up, activity in the third quarter was up by 42 per cent from the previous quarter, showing that “green shoots of recovery” are evident after several months of challenging government restrictions due to Covid-19, the firm noted.

Alistair Urquhart, director at CBRE in Glasgow, said: “Despite a continuing challenging climate, we’ve been encouraged by improving levels of demand for space. There were over 30 new requirements for office space in Glasgow in the third quarter.”

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