Research by HARNESS Property Intelligence looked at the value of commercial space in Liverpool Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff between 2010 and 2017. Tony McDonough reports
Value of commercial space for the café/restaurant sector has raced ahead of office and retail space over the past few years, new data shows.
Research by HARNESS Property Intelligence looked at the value of commercial space in Liverpool Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff between 2010 and 2017 and it found that the value per sq ft of café/restaurant in Liverpool had risen by 9%.
This was in contrast to the office market where values plummeted 18.33% over the same period with the retail space down by 7.8%.
The research serves as further evidence of the increasingly buoyant restaurant and cafe market, which was the recipient of £85bn of UK consumer spending in 2017, according to findings from Statista, although there are signs the casual dining market has recently become more challenging.
Ben Mein, chief executive of HARNESS, said: “Analysing the changes in values of commercial property across categories and regions provides a useful bellwether for the health of different sectors.
“The eat out culture has long been a firm favourite amongst the British population and has remained resilient despite being threatened by the emergence of delivery service heavyweights and a generally unpredictable economic environment.
“This could be partly explained by the corresponding misfortunes of the retail market, with restaurant and café operators able to capitalise upon falling consumer demand for traditional shop premises as the online boom continues to gain ground on its traditional counterpart.”
The study show that café/restaurant per sq ft values saw the biggest rise in Birmingham with a 15.8% increase, with Cardiff in second at 10.8%. Manchester and Liverpool saw rises of 9.9% and 9% respectively, whilst Bristol recorded a 6.2% rise. Leeds was the only city to post a fall of 0.52%.
Leeds also experienced the most significant decline in the office market. Values fell by 25.5% in the seven year period, whilst Liverpool, Cardiff and Birmingham also posted significant declines of 18.33%, 17% and 12.5% respectively. Bristol and Manchester fell by 6.5% and 5%.
The widely-documented challenges faced by the retail sector were also reflected in the findings. Cardiff and Leeds were the worst hit in terms of changes to shop values, which fell by 17% and 10.8%. Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester decreased by 7.8%, 7.2% and 1.4% respectively.
Birmingham was the exception to the rule, where the average value increased by 11.2%.