Land to Let or Buy in Nottingham

Business character

Nottingham's economy is unusually well balanced for a city of its size. Consumer health and retail is the historic anchor: Boots is the largest private employer in the city from its Beeston campus, and Paul Smith, Center Parcs and Wilko all grew up here. Financial and data services are the second pillar, with Experian and Capital One both running their UK or European operations from the Southside and NG2, joined by Vodafone on NG2 Business Park, and the law firm Browne Jacobson, which is moving its headquarters to 46,000 sq ft at Archers Wharf on Canal Street in 2028 and KPMG at the East West building in the centre. The public sector is very large: Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust employs over 16,000 people across the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital and is one of England's largest acute teaching trusts, HMRC's East Midlands regional centre is at Unity Square beside the station, and Nottingham City Council is a major employer in its own right. The University of Nottingham has around 36,000 students on its University Park and Jubilee campuses and Nottingham Trent University a further 35,000, with its City Campus just north of the centre, which feeds the creative and digital cluster in the Lace Market and Hockley, where See Tickets took 19,400 sq ft at The Hockley Pod and software firm Ideagen and web host GoDaddy are based. Games Workshop and Speedo give the city two globally known consumer brands headquartered on its industrial estates, and life sciences continue to grow around BioCity and the Enterprise Zone.

Transport & connectivity

• Motorway: M1 (Junction M1 J26, 6 miles)
• Nearest rail: Nottingham (96 min to London)
• Airport: East Midlands (14 miles)
• Key A-roads: A52, A453, A60, A610, A612, A6514 (Ring Road)

Market context

Nottingham is a market defined by a shortage of the best space and plenty of the rest. Prime city centre office rents are set to exceed £30 per sq ft in 2026, driven by Grade A refurbishments, while Grade B rents are largely static and the gap between the two keeps widening. Occupiers wanting new or refurbished floors face very limited choice until the refurbishment pipeline, including the former Land Registry building of 40,000 sq ft due in late 2026, arrives. Below that tier the choice is wide, with small suites often let on an inclusive rent. Industrial space is priced in line with the wider East Midlands, where prime rents rose about 8 per cent in 2023 and are forecast to grow around 5 per cent a year. Current asking rents on the established estates mostly sit between about £5 and £9 per sq ft, for example on Glaisdale Drive, at Bulwell, in New Basford and at Castle Park, and around £7.50 at Colwick. Agent research recorded Nottingham industrial take-up of 1.16 million sq ft in 2025, the highest since 2014, with East Midlands prime multi-let and mid-box rents running from about £6 to over £11 per sq ft. Retail is centred on the Victoria Centre, 981,000 sq ft with 120 shops anchored by John Lewis, and on Bridlesmith Gate and the Old Market Square, with independents concentrated in Hockley. City centre units sit at the top of the retail rent range and suburban parades at the bottom.