Take A Good Look At The U.K.'s Largest Speculative Office Scheme Outside London

Three Snowhill, Birmingham — at 420K SF the largest ever speculative city centre office scheme built in the U.K. outside London — is a monster.

These newly released aerials, courtesy of Three Snowhill contractor BAM, demonstrate the size and scale of the estate.

The £200M building completes the 1M SF Snowhill development by M&G Real Estate and Ballymore. It compares with the 1.2M SF of the Brindleyplace scheme.

JLL and Savills are joint letting agents at Three Snowhill.

Three Snowhill is likely to be the only new Grade-A office space delivered ready for occupation in Birmingham city centre in 2019.

Research by Birmingham surveyor KWB shows 720K SF of new unlet office floorspace will be delivered in the city in 2019. Along with Three Snowhill, there will be 183K SF at Two Chamberlain Square and 134K SF at Platform 21 New Street.

A further 968K SF will be delivered in 2020 onwards, including 284K SF at 103 Colmore Row and 280K SF at One Centenary Square.

Take-up in the Birmingham office market breached the 1M SF mark in 2017, beating the previous records set in 2015 and before the recession in 2008.

"Realistically, an occupier for [Three Snowhill] would have to be an inward investor," KWB said. "Given that few new city centre properties of this size exist across the country, it could prove that its existence is enough for a suitable occupier to take the whole space. For 2018’s Birmingham office market to deliver a total square footage that can stand up to its predecessor, a landmark deal of this kind would be needed."