Commercial Units to Let or Buy in Birmingham
382 properties found within 15 miles
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About Commercial Units in Birmingham
Birmingham is the largest local authority in the country, with a population of 1,183,618 at the ONS mid-2024 estimate, and it sits at the centre of a West Midlands metropolitan county of around 3 million people. The commercial core is compact and easy to read. The Colmore Business District around Colmore Row, Church Street and Snowhill is the professional and financial heart, home to over 650 companies and 75,000 people, and it runs west through Chamberlain Square and Centenary Square to Brindleyplace on the canals. South of New Street the Bullring and Grand Central anchor the retail centre, and beyond them Digbeth and Eastside are being rebuilt around the new HS2 terminus.
The economy has shifted a long way from its manufacturing roots without abandoning them. HSBC UK moved its head office to 1 Centenary Square in 2018, Goldman Sachs took 110,000 sq ft at One Centenary Way in the Paradise scheme and PwC put over 2,000 staff into One Chamberlain Square, its largest office outside London. At the same time the Jewellery Quarter still has around 700 jewellery-related businesses, 400 of them manufacturers, and produces 40 per cent of the jewellery made in the UK, Cadbury's Bournville factory remains one of the city's main employers, and JLR's Castle Bromwich plant switched from complete cars to pressed body panels in 2024. Digbeth has become the creative quarter: the Custard Factory houses around 400 small digital and creative businesses and the BBC is moving its Birmingham operations into the old Typhoo tea factory, with construction under way since February 2024.
Connectivity is the city's strongest card. Avanti West Coast runs around 98 trains a day from Birmingham New Street to London Euston, the fastest in 1 hour 19 minutes, and the HS2 station at Curzon Street, next to Moor Street and ten minutes' walk from New Street, is designed to cut central London to 49 minutes. Birmingham Airport is 8 miles east-south-east of the centre at M42 Junction 6 and handled 13.7 million passengers in 2025, with Birmingham International station alongside it. By road, the A38(M) Aston Expressway carries traffic the 2 miles from the centre to the M6 at Junction 6, the Gravelly Hill Interchange, better known as Spaghetti Junction, and the M5 and M42 complete a motorway box around the conurbation.
Office rents have moved sharply. Prime headline rents reached £46 per sq ft in 2025 and agent research put Birmingham and Bristol joint top of the regional cities at £52 per sq ft in the second quarter of 2026. Development is running at a scale few UK cities match: the Curzon HS2 masterplan covers 141 hectares across Eastside and Digbeth and is planned to deliver 600,000 sq m of business space and 14,000 net new jobs, the city centre Enterprise Zone was extended from 69.8 to 113.5 hectares with business rate retention to 2046 to fund the infrastructure, and Smithfield, the 17-hectare former wholesale markets site south of the Bullring, is being redeveloped as a mixed-use quarter. On the industrial side, Peddimore, a 2.7 million sq ft employment park being built by IM Properties in partnership with the city council near M42 Junction 9, is the biggest new supply for a generation.
Business character
Professional and financial services lead. Banking has re-centred on Birmingham, with HSBC UK's head office at 1 Centenary Square housing around 2,500 staff, Deutsche Bank at One and Five Brindleyplace, Lloyds Banking Group with over 1,000 people at Two Brindleyplace and Goldman Sachs at One Centenary Way, while the big four accountants and national law firms fill the Colmore Business District; BT has over 3,000 staff at Three Snowhill and KPMG is at One Snowhill. The public sector is the other big occupier: the city's NHS trusts together employ over 20,000 people, the University of Birmingham has over 8,000 staff and Birmingham City Council employs roughly 10,000, with Aston University and Birmingham City University adding to a large student and graduate pool. Manufacturing is still real, from Cadbury at Bournville, where Mondelez employs around 6,500 to the Jewellery Quarter's 400 jewellery makers and the world's largest Assay Office, and transport is a home-grown industry: Mobico, the owner of National Express, is headquartered at Birmingham Coach Station in Digbeth. Retail and leisure are a major employer in their own right, with Bullring and Grand Central recording 48.2 million visits in 2025, and the Custard Factory and the BBC's move have made Digbeth the natural home for media and digital firms. Other significant employers include PwC (One Chamberlain Square), University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Mondelez / Cadbury (Bournville), JLR (Castle Bromwich) and Mobico / National Express (Digbeth).
Transport & connectivity
- Motorway: M6 (Junction M6 J6, 2 miles)
- Nearest rail: Birmingham New Street (79 min to London)
- Airport: Birmingham (8 miles)
- Key A-roads: A38, A38(M), A34, A41, A45, A47, A456, A4540 (Middleway ring road)
Market context
Birmingham's office market is now priced in two clear tiers. Grade A space in the central business district was quoting £44 to £46 per sq ft in early 2026, with Grade B at £26 to £35; Digbeth Grade A was £32.50 to £35 and Eastside and Westside £28 to £29, with Grade B in those areas at £19 to £20. The top buildings at Paradise and 103 Colmore Row go higher still, at the £52 per sq ft prime headline recorded in mid-2026. Industrial space is tighter than offices. Agent research reported 2025 quoting rents for mid-box units in the West Midlands of £12.55 per sq ft for prime and £10.35 for secondary space. The larger sheds are at the M42 end of the district and the cheaper workshops in Aston and Hockley. Retail rents span a wide range, with the highest figures in B1 and B5 around the Bullring and New Street, and suburban parades in Longbridge, Kings Heath and Yardley let for far less.
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Commercial Property in Birmingham
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