Big 6 office market reports robust Q4 as Savills Sentiment Survey sees city centre offices set to…
The latest figures from international real estate advisor Savills reveals Q4 2025 take-up figures reached 1.1 million sq ft across the Big 6 (Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester), which is in line with the five-year average and highlights continued resilience in the regional office markets. In addition, the firm’s National Office Sentiment Survey* forecasts that core located city centre office spaces are expected to outperform in 2026 with 73% of respondents anticipating demand to rise this year for prime office space.
Whilst overall office take-up across the Big 6 for the year represents a 13% decline on 2024 levels, reflecting the impact of the weak economy and prolonged occupier decision making throughout the year, Savills notes that the strong final quarter has provided positive momentum heading into 2026, suggesting a release of pent-up demand, with occupiers completing transactions that had been deferred earlier in the year.
Savills research also highlights positive activity across individual regions with several achieving a healthy level of deals over 20,000 sq ft including Manchester (11 deals), Birmingham (10), Bristol (6) and Leeds (5), showing the continued demand for larger space and indicating expanding business confidence in the market.
Bristol had a particularly strong year with take-up at 604,119 sq ft in 2025, 37% higher than 2024, 20% above the five-year average and 7% above the ten-year average. Key to this strong performance was the Hargreaves Lansdown deal taking 90,362 sq ft at the Welcome Building. Glasgow also had a relatively strong Q4 with take-up in 2025 at 433,781 sq ft which was on par with 2024 and 6% above the five-year average take-up. In terms of number of deals for the year, Bristol and Glasgow led seeing increases of 22% and 9% respectively compared to 2024.
When analysing sectors, Savills notes that professional services and TMT, followed by public services education and health, dominated across the regions. Savills anticipates professional services and technology occupiers to be the most active business sectors in 2026.
James Evans, national head of office agency at Savills, says: “Whilst occupier decision making remained cautious, which we expect to continue, a strong Q4 across the regions highlights improving confidence and results in a positive start for 2026. Looking ahead, limited new supply is likely to support rental growth for best in class space and create opportunities for the repositioning of existing assets.
“In line with the results of our internal survey, we expect stronger demand for fitted space and more flexible lease teams. Although in some instances the cost of fit out may prohibit some moves, 2026 will witness a continuation of occupiers seeking high quality space.”
* The National Office Agency Sentiment Survey 2026 is an extensive internal survey of agents across the firm’s UK regional office market to identify key themes expected this year.