Land to Let or Buy in Bath

Business character

Bath is a city of small professional, creative and knowledge businesses rather than big corporate occupiers. Architecture, engineering consultancy, publishing, software and design all cluster here, partly because of the two universities and partly because the city is an attractive place to base a firm that sells nationally. Buro Happold, founded in Bath in 1976, is the best-known example, and the University of Bath runs an Innovation Centre for technology companies coming out of its research. Future plc anchors a publishing and digital media cluster, and Rotork is one of the few manufacturers of scale still making things in the city. The public sector is the largest employer by some distance: the NHS, the two universities and Bath and North East Somerset Council between them account for most of the city's biggest payrolls, and education and health provided around 30,000 jobs at the last count, retail, tourism and leisure 14,000, and business and professional services 10,000. Tourism underpins a large hospitality trade, which keeps demand for cafe, restaurant and independent shop space steady even when national retail is weak. Manufacturing and distribution are small and mostly sit outside the city in the Somer Valley around Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John. Other significant employers include Bath Spa University, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Wessex Water (head office, Claverton Down), BMT (No.1 Bath Quays), British Land (SouthGate), Curo and Mott MacDonald.

Transport & connectivity

• Motorway: M4 (Junction M4 J18, 10 miles)
• Nearest rail: Bath Spa (79 min to London)
• Airport: Bristol (19 miles)
• Key A-roads: A4, A36, A46, A367, A363

Market context

Bath is a small, supply-constrained market where the choice of space is decided by planning rather than by developers. Offices split into three kinds: period suites in Georgian townhouses around Queen Square, Gay Street and the Circus, which suit firms of two to twenty people and let by the room or the floor; refurbished mid-century and Victorian buildings such as Royal Mead and the serviced floors at Cambridge House; and the new Grade A floors at Bath Quays, which are the only modern open-plan option of any size. Industrial stock is thin and mostly old: the council's 2015 industrial review found 71 per cent of the district's industrial floorspace was Grade C, with Bath Business Park at Peasedown St John the only premium estate, and the Local Plan evidence base records a net loss of 47,386 sq m of industrial space across the district since 2011 and a chronic shortage of industrial supply, and the Local Plan now protects the primary industrial estates under policy ED2A, and sites along the Lower Bristol Road can only be redeveloped if their employment floorspace is retained or replaced. The best units at Brassmill Lane and Locksbrook Road rarely stay empty. Retail is the strongest part of the market. Bath recorded 33 retail lettings in a year against a previous high of 20, and available instructions fell to 13 from a normal 30 to 40. A 765 sq ft shop near the top of Milsom Street was quoting £40,000 a year in 2026, roughly £52 per sq ft, while rents elsewhere in the city depend on how close a unit is to the Milsom Street, Union Street and SouthGate core.