The inward march of cranes and concrete in Manchester city centre is no accident but a symptom of a deeper shift. Walk through Spinningfields, pass Circle Square or loiter on Deansgate and you can feel it in the air: a renewed confidence among firms that the North qualifies as a serious stage, not a regional afterthought. The statistics tracing office space take-up in 2024 tell the same story. Landlords and brokers point to more than a million square feet of agreements completed across Greater Manchester last year, the strongest result since the pandemic. It is not merely recovery. It is expansion.
What surprised me most when talking to brokers last spring was how often they leaned into the word “expansion” rather than “return.” Many had braced for a long drawn-out recalibration of demand after hybrid work unsettled leasing patterns. Instead, corporates from tech and finance to law and consultancy are signing for larger premises. An OBI report from 2025 noted that 70 percent of office relocations above 10,000 square feet actually saw businesses increase their footprint rather than shrink it.
That trend shows in the transactions that punctuated the market last year. The UK design of processors and software platforms giant Arm agreed to occupy nearly 69,000 square feet at No.1 St Michael’s, a high-end development that stands as one of the most significant commercial leases in Manchester in recent years, more than doubling its space from its old Portland Street base. The symbolism of this deal stuck with me when I first heard the figures over coffee in a northern quarter café; it felt like the city whispering to itself that this was not a fluke.
Some relocations do more than shuffle desks and chairs. At 125 Deansgate, a leading law firm unified its 800-strong workforce under one roof, a rare move in an era of segmented offices and touchdown spaces. Across Piccadilly Gardens an engineering consultancy reaffirmed its long association with the region by signing on at One Piccadilly Gardens. These are not modest footnotes but statements of intent from firms that could have chosen London or another global hub.
Yet Manchester’s growth narrative is neither linear nor untroubled. While take-up rates impress, there lingers uncertainty about the pipeline of space. Brokers and occupiers murmur about shortages of Grade A office supply, a condition which paradoxically hammers the market and spurs new development. Reports suggest more than half of the planned Grade A space is already committed, and demand could exceed another million square feet in the coming years even as rents climb. It is an unusual dynamic: more demand, less inventory, and an uneasy optimism among landlords hoping to see their buildings fill before the next economic wobble.
On the ground the scale of construction plays with perspective. In the Mayfield district right next to Piccadilly station, work has started on The Republic, an office building that will sit at the edge of a park extension that effectively folds green space into work life. This is not the absent-landscapes of 1990s business parks but an attempt to imagine office work as part of a lived-in neighbourhood.
Even so, there are moments that underscore the fragility of confidence. A friend who runs a small consultancy looked up from his laptop in Ancoats one morning and wondered aloud whether the city’s soaring rents and fierce competition for office space might price out the very innovators the boom claims to attract. There is a tension here between glass towers and the scrappy start-ups that first made Manchester feel electric.
Another dimension of expansion is less visible but equally potent: the decisions by firms headquartered elsewhere to plant flags here. J3 Advisory, for example, chose Manchester for its first office outside of London, a modest opening for just a couple of team members but telling in its ambition. On King Street a regeneration advisory firm made Manchester a permanent base, citing the region’s strategic importance to its portfolio.
These moves embody a subtle but significant shift in corporate geography. When I first started reporting on Manchester’s business landscape a decade ago, most firms outside the core north west cluster seemed to view the city centre as a cost alternative to London. Now many see it as a launching pad, a place where clients, talent and ideas converge without the stubbed prices of the capital.
There is also a human rhythm underpinning these transactions that numbers alone do not capture. Take a lunchtime stroll past Circle Square and you will see professionals clustered on benches, laptops closed, talking about returning to in-person collaboration. A few months ago I bumped into a recruiter who had been sceptical about the office’s future. She paused mid-sentence and said it felt like the city was “remembering itself.” That remark lingered with me as a quiet truth amidst all the spreadsheets.
Not all sectors blink with the same certainty. Flexible workspace providers have taken a meaningful chunk of space in recent years and while demand has softened slightly, many corporates are still seeking agility in how they occupy space, blending fixed bases with communal areas and flexible desks. The appetite for quality over quantity has become almost a mantra among tenants.
Stepping back there is something broader at play: Manchester’s story is entwined with its identity as a regional powerhouse, one that can attract global capital and local ingenuity in equal measure. The numbers and deals tell part of it but the impressions of those who walk its streets tell another. In the end this expansion is not just about square footage but about confidence — in talent, in place, and in the city’s capacity to stitch together commerce and community.
