Scotland’s serviced office sector has recorded the first growth since 2008, according to a report from Officebroker.
The serviced office broking company said that, following a year in which enquiry and deal levels fell by up to 25%, the 163 business centres operating throughout Scotland experience sustained growth in the first quarter.
It said that the growth recorded north of the border in the first quarter “has been among the strongest seen anywhere in the UK and marks the first period of sustained growth in this market since 2008”.
Officebroker.com’s head of UK sales, Chris Meredith, said: “”Scotland saw the number of new serviced office tenants rise by 12% and enquiries increase by 28% during the opening months of the years.”
“What is significant is that the rise in enquiries is the first since 2008.
“This shows that the current levels of growth have the potential to be raised yet further by a new wave of enquiries entering the pipeline.
“Business owners are returning to action” he added.
The report highlighted that the rising number of tenants also accompanied an increase in the size of space required, the impact of which brought about a 39% increase in the price of an individual workstation.
But with these same workstation prices having fallen by up to 24% in 2009, this increase brings prices back in line with the national average and will go some way to helping the owners and landlords of serviced office buildings to recover the loses inflicted upon them during 2009.
A statement from the group added that the return of these businesses to Scotland’s serviced offices, which have become increasingly attractive to cost conscious business owners in recent years, “signals growing levels of confidence and suggests that the entrepreneurial spirit so widely criticised as missing in Scotland is alive and well”.
