Birmingham

£164205 - The average gross profit per year across overall portfolios
32% of Birmingham landlords surveyed plan to use rental income to buy a new personal property
42% commercial property professionals thought retail properties provided a significant opportunity (over the next five years)

If diversity brings opportunity, Birmingham could be one of the best cities for commercial property investment in 2025.

A cultural, creative and commercial melting pot at the very centre of the country, Birmingham continues to attract new industries, companies and employees, as one of the UK’s fastest growing economies.

Here’s our latest insights on Birmingham’s Buy to Let, Office, and Retail & Distribution sectors

City insights

£1,050 average private monthly rent in Birmingham (March 2025)
20% of landlords said that Social Housing and community spaces provided opportunities in the next 12 months
82% of Birmingham landlords think rental yields will increase over the next 12 months
81% of Birmingham landlords feel positive about EPC ratings changes
23% believe further government policy changes on Buy to Let would be the biggest challenge for landlords

For Buy to Let landlords, Birmingham is a city with a lot to offer. The UK’s second largest city has a young, dynamic and diverse population, opening up a lot of opportunities for property investors looking to diversify their portfolios. In Birmingham, 47% of households are renting, accounting for 196,798 rental properties across the area.

Our survey suggests that landlords living and investing in the area see student housing (23%) and energy efficient homes and renovations (21%) as the most attractive prospects in 2025.

Social housing lets in Birmingham

Like many UK cities, Birmingham has a chronic undersupply of social housing stock. In February 2025, applicants on the social housing register had to wait an average of 70 weeks before being provided a rental property, with the City Council stating that only 8% of applicants were successfully placed in the last year.

Landlords concerned about the Renters’ Rights Bill changes to Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements (ASTs), and the potential for more voids, could seek to rent their portfolios to the council or registered social housing associations as a way of guaranteeing income streams over an agreed period.

At Together, we are proud to support social housing landlords and providers throughout the UK. Get in touch to find out how a trusted finance partner can help you deliver safe and secure homes for the people in our communities that need it most.

Find out more

City insights

708,000 sq ft of office space under construction
Prime rent at £42.50 per sq ft. Expected to exceed £50 per sq ft by 2027
70% said office space would be a strong investment opportunity over the next five years
48% of property professionals in Birmingham said they’re seeing an increased demand from employees for better amenities
37% increase in revenue expected in next five years

Birmingham-based businesses were busy moving into their new headquarters last year, as the city saw 843,218 sq ft of floor space leased out. That was the highest amount since 2017, with figures growing year on year since 2020, demonstrating that the Birmingham office market is recovering well post-pandemic.

Office vacancy rates in Birmingham mirror the national trend, with an overall vacancy of 9.56% and Prime / Grade A vacancy levels at 2.7%. This shows that many businesses in the UK’s second largest city are disregarding available Grade B and C premises in favour of higher quality office spaces.

Repurposing space for offices in Birmingham

Conveniently placed close to the Bullring Shopping Centre and Birmingham New Street rail station, a new project is set to bring 200,000 sq ft of new office space to the heart of the city.

So, what’s different about it? Well, it will repurpose a former department store at Grand Central rather than being built from the ground up. Drum, set to open in 2025, combines a sustainable, innovative design with retail, leisure and hospitality elements to create an attractive best-in-class office space.

But repurposing doesn’t need to be done on such a grand scale. At Together, we’ve seen a trend of developers revitalising vacant buildings in our city and town centres into new residential, retail, leisure, hospitality and office opportunities.

Looking to secure funding for your next commercial property development? Get in touch with our expert team to see how we can help.

Development finance

City insights

100,000 sq ft of retail floorspace under construction in 2024
53% increase in West Midlands logistics property take-up
34% reported an increase in beauty and grooming salons on Birmingham’s high streets
32% average expected increase in retail revenue over the next five years
70% confident that retail investment would be a good opportunity over the next five years

The retail sector currently makes up 21% of all businesses in Birmingham, making it the largest single sector by number and a significant contributor to the regional economy.

City centre shopping continues to be dominated by the Bullring (32.7m annual footfall) and Grand Central Shopping Centre (14.3m annual footfall). 40% of commercial property professionals in the city said that consumer demand and footfall were the most important factors influencing their investment decisions in the sector.

46% of Birmingham-based commercial property professionals said that in the last 12 months, they’d seen more tenants asking for rolling contracts rather than fixed contracts. This is much lower than the national average of 63%.

Demand for distribution hubs in Birmingham

As online retail sales throughout the UK continue to grow (recording £127bn in transaction in 2024), we’re seeing an increase in the need and number of logistics & distribution hubs springing up in key strategic locations to meet the unique challenges.

These large, high-tech warehouses store millions of pounds worth of product and need to be able to dispatch to customers over a wide geographical area, often within very tight deadlines.

The West Midlands is ideally positioned to cater for these needs, as it occupies a central location in the UK and has easy access to major transport links such as the M6, M5 and M40 motorways, and rail and air freight hubs. In 2024, the West Midlands saw a 53% increase in the amount of logistics space leased in comparison to 2023, covering an estimated 5.4 million sq ft.

Developers that we’ve worked with have also taken advantage of the copious brownfield sites that line Birmingham’s major motorways as they can be cheaper to build on (due to existing infrastructure) and provide easy access to the road network.

Here’s how developers transformed a West Midlands brownfield site into a large logistics hub with a £22m development facility from Together.

Case study

Any property used as security, including your home, may be repossessed if you don’t repay your mortgage.

Together is a trading style of each of the undernoted companies, which have their registered office address at Lake View, Lakeside, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 3GW. Together Commercial Finance Limited | Registered in England and Wales - Company Registration Number 02058813.

Get in touch