Flude are a regional firm of property consultants and surveyors with offices in Brighton, Portsmouth and Chichester. I head up the Chichester office and have worked in or around Chichester for about 20 years and there has been a lot of change here over that time!
The recovery of the retail property market within Chichester city centre following COVID is almost there as we see occupiers taking the opportunity over the last few years to relocate to better units within the city from their existing locations. In terms of new openings, we found a lot of independents taking space who in the past found the historic occupational costs of taking a shop a barrier. The business rates revaluation and adjustment in rents has helped with letting retail units and we also see good demand from more regional and national occupiers who want to open in Chichester, which is positive for the centre.
The Chichester core central office market is also improving as businesses embrace a growing back-to-office movement and there is a clear trend of companies seeking to upgrade their office specification, aiming to create environments that attract employees back to the workplace. This is positive for those businesses that service city centre occupiers including retailers and the food and beverage industry. We are beginning to see stronger demand for efficient, modern buildings, yet only 5% of available stock benefits from an EPC A rating in our region and so it is for owners to look to improve the quality offer of offices to occupiers albeit there are some limitations to what can be undertaken when dealing with buildings that are listed within our historic city centre.
In my view the property market in 2025 is looking positive so far.