Student accommodation ‘changing face of Plymouth’s commercial property scene’
Student accommodation is changing the face of the Plymouth property scene and dramatically altering the range of accommodation available.
That’s the view of Mark Slade from Bruton Knowles’ Plymouth office, who said: “With upwards of 26,000 students in and around the city there is an insatiable appetite for student accommodation in the city. The continued expansion of the university will create further demand.
Mark was commenting on the latest planning application for a 17-storey, 528 bed unit to replace the 1950s vintage Mayflower House on Armada Way.
“This is addition to schemes already under construction at Notte Street, Coburg Street and St Andrews roundabout to name but a few! Although there is some provision for retail in the plan the main driver is clearly the student accommodation element.
“Although major schemes like this are dominating the commercial landscape, industrial demand in the city is still being driven by the SME market with most requirements in the 2-5,000sq ft bracket.
“There are some pockets of larger requirements of 20-30,000 sq ft driven around the construction industry, for example builders’ merchants seeking to gain a foothold in Plymouth or looking to relocate.
“This may be partly driven by the volume of new housing currently under construction or future sites in the pipeline such as the new Sherford development.
“Unfortunately there seems to be dearth of stock in these sectors with many agents reporting a marked lack of supply.”
Turning to the office market, Mark said he has seen an uplift in supply with Ocean Crescent in the city centre, a scheme on which Bruton Knowles has been instructed with Monk and Partners.
The Ship (former Western Morning News building) at Derriford is also on the market giving potential occupiers some choice when it comes to award-winning, high quality space.
“Rents remain fairly static however and we hope to see some new ‘benchmarks’ being set with this Grade A space being made available.”
Bruton Knowles is also marketing the prominent Sandy Court building on the popular Langage Business Park.
He concluded: “New homes development is seeing something of a resurgence with small developers back in the market place due to the availability of new funding streams at fairly competitive rates.”
For further information, contact Mark Slade at Mark.slade@brutonknowles.co.uk
