West Midlands construction is on the rise

In the course of the past few months, construction in the West Midlands has witness an improvement following the development of new industrial and commercial space around the larger urban areas of the region, most notably Birmingham.

In fact, the Glenigan Index has recently revealed that the value of construction project starts in the West Midlands was up 16% in the three months building to July when compared with the same data from a year previously.

According to Glenigan’s most recent Construction Outlook-Forecast, Birmingham has become one of the regional centres where a rising demand for office accommodation and a prior cessation of activity has resulted in subsequent drought in available space to construct these types of developments.

Now, however, the sector is performing better than in any other region of the country. To be specific, planning approvals for new offices in the West Midlands during the second quarter of 2019 display a total worth of £132M, the highest value region in the country and accounting for close to a fifth of the nation’s overall worth within this sector.

Some of the more noteworthy industrial and commercial developments, which are currently under construction in the West Midlands, include the £60M Business Hub at Eastside Locks in Birmingham, where construction is scheduled to commence in the autumn of 2019, which will entail the alteration of an existing building to create a new five-storey build with 13,00sq m of commercial office and teaching space.

In addition to this, the Legal and General UK Property Trust has submitted plans for a £15M conversion of a building which was formerly a House of Fraser department store, the Rackhams Building on Birmingham’s Corporation Street, into nine floors of office space, a hotel, and a roof terrace, due to commence in spring 2020 and continue for a year.

Conversely, in the logistics and warehousing sector, Savills has reported that, although other sectors have been performing better in recent times, once Brexit uncertainty is alleviated the sector is forecasted to pick-up substantially.

Significant contracts within the West Midland region within this sector include the likes of the Fradley Park development in Staffordshire, underway by the Evans Property Group, creating a warehouse space of 400,00sq ft at a price of £20M as well as the new £90M Jaguar Land Rover Logistics Operation Centre.

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