“2014 has been like a breath of fresh air for our business” – Interview with Mike Owen of Owen Shipp
As part of our focus this July on the commercial property market in the South East, we spoke to Mike Owen of Owen Shipp about how things have been going in their area of Guildford in 2014.
Following our previous interviews with fellow South East Agents Page Hardy Harris and Stupples Chandler Garvey, the general opinion has been that the commercial market has been on the up; but has Owen Shipp been seeing the same trend?
“2014 has been like a breath of fresh air for our business” says Mike, “confidence is back in the market and these are exciting times again!”
With the market steadily improving throughout the year so, Mike reflects on one trend in particular that has come to prominence in 2014: “A temporary trend has been the conversion of office premises into residential use, which is reducing office stock and pushing office rents up. Unless there is more office development in Guildford then this rental growth will continue.”
The increase in commercial to residential conversion is an occurrence that many agents in the South East have been reporting. It is also something we looked at recently on the NovaLoca Blog.
However, despite the optimism surrounding the market, Mike suggests that Guildford in particular could do with some extra development due to the recent increases in demand.
“Expansion for businesses is challenging because of the physical constraints of the town. The constraints on development are such that new businesses looking to relocate into Guildford are finding it difficult to identify suitable good quality business premises.”
These issues may be solved going forward though, with Mike indicating that more development could be on the way: “With the Guildford Borough Draft Local Plan and numerous potential sites under consideration, there should be plenty of new opportunities over the next few years.”
Mike seems confident that the good start to 2014 will continue: “Amazingly we are already half way through the year and I expect the buoyant market to continue and maybe we will see some great new projects leading into 2015.”
There is still the one element that Mike would like to see more of in Guildford going forward: “It would be good to see more commercial development in the area.” As we have seen in our previous interviews, the South East market is proving incredibly buoyant. The question just remains whether the development rate can keep up with it.
Click here to view all of Owen Shipp’s properties on NovaLoca or follow this link to read our interviews with Page Hardy Harris and Stupples Chandler Garvey.
