The Place

Birmingham is the 2nd city of the UK. It is home to just over 1.2 million inhabitants within its city area and 2.8 million across its urban area with a massive population of 4.3 million within its metropolitan area.

The city is dominated by the service sector catering to this massive population and its metropolitan economy is the 2nd largest outside of London with a GDP of £121 billion. Birmingham is a major international commercial centre and its position within the centre of England forces itself to be a major link within the countries transport links.

Companies such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Rolls-Royce have significantly sized manufacturing plants based within the Greater Birmingham area, with an increasing number of multi-national brands choosing to locate to the 2nd city.

Birmingham’s cultural influence across the UK is just as diverse and dynamic as its commercial sector with the city being world renown for its food and cuisine, bustling nightlife and its cultural significance which spans TV, Music and beyond.

The Commercial Sector

Birmingham’s commercial property sector is one in which it takes a great deal of time to understand and interpret. Luckily at Shepherd Commercial, we live and breathe the West Midlands commercial sector and deal with properties every single hour of the working week.

It’s difficult to talk about the city’s commercial sector without mentioning the COVID pandemic and its effects. At the time of writing, the pandemic seems to be in decline, however its effects are still ongoing. The pandemic initially hit Birmingham’s commercial property market very hard in 2020, yet in 2021 the unexpected occurred and we observed the sector outperform pre-pandemic levels in certain areas and aspects. Speaking at the start of 2022, the last half of 2021 saw big institutions and corporate bodies, re-position themselves within the city by moving offices and taking advantage of a slightly stagnant office market. By the end of 2021, offices both freehold and leasehold were seeing intense demand and our portfolio of marketed offices dwindled.

BT group announced a new 17 storey regional hub in Snow Hill employing just over 3,000 jobs at full capacity. Intense travel link works and refurbishments in preparation for HS2 and its influx of work and people is deciding minds in organisations previously located outside of Birmingham.

All of this movement and attention towards moving into the 2nd city inevitably see’s the commercial sector receive excess attention. Commercial places are being looked at by a wide variety of organisations and freehold units in the area do not last very long. Leasehold units are in more supply which is natural but again, many are not lasting long. The commercial sector of Birmingham remained stable throughout the pandemic and now we are seeing an insurgence of capital and interest into the cities commercial market.

All in all the future looks very bright for Birmingham’s commercial sector and there is no better time than current to consider options within the cities market. Shepherd Commercial actively facilitate the acquisition and disposal of commercial assets within Birmingham and as one of the key agents in the area, many Birmingham businesses choose Shepherd as their acting agent.

Combining the two

The commercial sector of Birmingham is promising. Investing in the region is backed by countless figures and statistical markers.

Any individual or company can invest in the West Midlands and the second city and many that do are based in the Midlands already. The influx of multi-national companies and surge of tenants leaving Central London in search of another great city to build their base is shown in Birmingham.

Shepherd Commercial facilitate these moves and rather than continue on about how to enter the commercial market. We’d rather you explore our already posted resources or contact us direct so we may understand your situation in further detail.

Head to contact us to get in touch.