Regional office take-up reached 7.6 million square feet last year after what Avison Young described as a "strong Q4".
Its quarterly analysis of workspace lettings across the UK's Big Nine cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, showed 2025 came in at 4% below 2024's total.
But it argued that last year's figure was in line with the five-year average, demonstrating "ongoing resilience" of take-up in the regions and "signalling a new normal for demand levels" across the UK.
One of the main highlights of last year was Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds all clinching new rental record, reaching £50, £46 and £46 per square foot respectively.
The agency's analysis showed that 61% of demand was for centrally located offices, down from 67% in 2024. It also predicted that out-of-town markets could benefit from a shortage of Grade A space in city centres, particularly those with larger floorplates.
At the end of the 2025, it found vacancy was at 9.8%, which was down on the previous quarter, but higher than the 8.7% recorded at the end of 2024. Despite this, Grade A vacancy remains constrained at 2.2%, it added.
Avison Young argued the next three years across the Big Nine "will be defined by record low levels of deliveries", with just 840,000 square feet set for completion each year over this period, below the annual historic average of 2.5 million square feet a year.
"We expect refurbishments to continue to help plug the gap left my subdued new build starts, indeed, 53% of schemes we are tracking for delivery in 2026 are refurbishments, up on 41% in 2025 and 33% in 2024," the agency added in its report.