The third central Birmingham office market map created by the Birmingham Office Market Forum (BOMF) has been launched at Opus.

The map –which is put together with research company CoStar - provides the latest take up figures for the city as well as the available stock.

Entering into her second year as forum chairman Philippa Pickavance, head of agency at Drivers Jonas said the unique initiative had already paid dividends for the city’s commercial property sector.

She said: “The launch of the third map to use as a marketing tool for the city, demonstrates the office agent community’s continued commitment to promoting the city in conjunction with the City Council, aided by the invaluable assistance from research company CoStar.

“The state of the economy has clearly affected rental levels and number of enquiries in the market, hence it is even more important to present all product and the city in its best light. Rents have now fallen from their peak. Headline rents on prime office space in Birmingham are now more competitive in a range of £23.00- £28.00 psf, which is good for occupiers. We also have a good range of office stock to attract all types of enquiries, not just Grade A top quality accommodation, but a raft of very acceptable second hand space.

“This year the occupier will certainly be in the driving seat. However inevitably the Grade A available stock will start to diminish and is unlikely to be replaced for three to four years so occupiers should act now while very good deals are available on most stock.”

Despite the forthcoming general election, Government occupiers and the outsource providers are still predicted to form a large part of the office demand in the forthcoming year and with their requirements for sustainable buildings, Birmingham is well placed in its offering of five BREEAM Excellent buildings currently in the city centre providing just under 500,000 sq ft.

Take-up in 2009 was 657,280 sq ft; while this was less than the record year seen in 2008, when just under one million sq ft was transacted, this was not unsurprising in the current economic climate and was very close to the average take up for the preceding years.

Take-up was dominated by three major deals which accounted for 45 per cent of the take up, Highways Agency taking 55,939 sq ft at The Cube, Birmingham City Council committing to its Woodcock Street site at Birmingham Science Park 196,000 sq ft and Amey taking 45,863 sq ft at Colmore Plaza.

The market does fall into two halves, with the majority of deals being at the smaller end of the scale, a typical pattern for many regional cities and as reflected in Manchester and Leeds.

Shaun Dawson of CoStar, added: “Our thorough research details stock information on the 719 office buildings that make up the Birmingham city centre and provide 17.04 sq m of accommodation. There is a further 5.5m sq ft potential office development pipeline space, although it is unlikely that any of this will be committed to site in the next two to three years due to the economic climate.”

Although CoStar revealed that 3.84m sq ft of accommodation was in theory ‘available’ they made it clear that it includes a number of buildings which would not be occupiable without substantial refurbishment and also ‘grey space’ – still occupied by tenant’s who are looking to move. The important fact for the city is that there is only one million sq ft of Grade A vacant space out of that total available.

Jack Glonek, assistant director development directorate of Birmingham City Council, said: “Birmingham City Council is preparing for future Government relocations from London and the South East in readiness for the Smith Report that is due in March, a follow up from the Lyons Review indicating Government’s commitment to relocating further Civil Service positions out of London and the South East.”

The companies involved in the forum are BNP Paribas Real Estate, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers CRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Drivers Jonas, DTZ, GBR, GVA Grimley, Jones Lang LaSalle, King Sturge, Knight Frank, KWB, Lambert Smith Hampton, Savills, and Vail Williams and CoStar Group.