Hope for property resurgence in and around York during 2011 (From York Press)

Hope for property resurgence in and around York during 2011

11:05am Monday 3rd January 2011 in Business news By Julie Hayes, Business editor

THE SLOW improvement in the property market in and around York is expected to continue into 2011.

York property lawyer Jonathan Moore, of Dickinson Dees, said he was cautiously optimistic about the next 12 months in the property sector with some developers making bold decisions.

He said: “When the recession first started to bite, the office market stopped dead in its tracks. Companies, both large and small, weren’t thinking about moving into new premises, they were thinking purely about survival and consolidation.”

Despite this, there were deals done in York in 2010, including the University of York’s expansion and the York-based Skelwith Group’s development of the 80-acre Raithwaite Hall Country Retreat in Sandsend, near Whitby.

Great Rail Journeys, based in Saviour House in St Saviourgate, expanded onto two further floors in December, and Malton-based software company Propalms moved into York’s expanding Apollo House in October.

In the retail market, York’s vacancy rate was lower than the national average at 11.3 per cent, compared to 14 per cent, according to research from the Local Data Company. And the city continues to attract big retail operations, with Waitrose and HomeSense moving into Foss Islands Road and TK Maxx opening in Coney Street. Mr Moore said the big housebuilders were also back in the game after two lean years.

He said: “There is the need for new houses and there is the land available.

“Demand for quality care and accommodation for an ageing society is also showing growth in retirement village developments and specialist dementia care facilities.

“Ultimately, however, it depends on whether the economy can withstand the cuts. If it can, confidence will return, companies will begin to look towards the future and the property market will begin to move forward again with purpose. But that is a very big ‘if’.”

He said: “There is still a long way to go before the battered commercial property market is back to those halcyon days of 2005/07.

“But there are indications that the worst may be behind us.”