Ben Bolton, Director of Business Space at Cooke & Arkwright, looks at how cities can best maximise their built environments.

The structure of the Welsh economy has undergone huge changes in recent decades, from one largely based on manufacturing to one more reliant on services. This pattern, which is echoed in cities across the UK, means that Welsh cities are likely to continue to require high value, office-based employment. This makes the provision of the right type of office space hugely important for ...

Investment Director, Graham Davies looks at the increasing challenges councils face in providing services against reduced government funding.

Many local authorities are looking at creative ways of balancing their books and becoming players in the investment market.

Commercial office lettings in Cardiff in the first quarter were up 57% on the same quarter last year, in figures released by Cooke & Arkwright.

According to the data, gathered by the Cardiff Commercial Property Forum, total space leased in the first quarter of 2017 was 150,500 sq. ft., compared with 95,000 sq. ft. for the same period last year.

In research carried out by CACI, Cardiff was named the third best potential office location in the UK outside of London in the Property Week Hot 100 Office Index 2017.

The Welsh capital gained top A grade scores for its very strong retail and food and beverage sectors, and also scored highly for the demographic of its workforce with a wide spread of high, medium and low income workers. Other high scoring areas included public transport access, its quality of road networks, quality of shops in the city, catering provision and wi-fi connectivity.

Professional rating consultants have become increasingly concerned about the practices of some unscrupulous firms that target occupiers with misleading promises to secure reductions in the rateable value of their properties.

Occupiers can be besieged by aggressive marketing tactics and not be made aware that their rates can go up as well as down. They are then charged up-front fees, have appeals launched on their behalf without proper prior investigation, find that they have signed up to contracts that are less than transparent about length of terms, and discover that there are heavy charges if they try to cancel their contracts.

Cooke & Arkwright's Chairman, Michael Lawley, was invited by Wales Business Insider to sit on the panel at the Construction & Property Breakfast to take part of the property debate about 'Enabling the Real Estate Market to Deliver in Wales'.

Speaking on 'Promotions', he said, "We do well at selling Wales as a great place to live or visit. We struggle with selling it as a great place to come and do business, create businesses and grow. But we ...

Cooke & Arkwright has been appointed to market the commercial space for a flagship Centre for Student Life at Cardiff University. The new Centre for Student Life, proposed for Park Place, is part of a £50m investment in the student experience at the University.

Alongside a state-of-the-art lecture theatre and a range of informal learning spaces, it will also house two prominent commercial outlets, which Cooke & Arkwright will be marketing to potential occupants.

A cluster of traditional stone barns and outbuildings set in open countryside on the Glamorgan heritage coast offers an exciting development project for someone to create a new residential dwelling plus a holiday cottage.

Pysgodlyn Barns in Broughton, near Monknash in the Vale of Glamorgan, are surrounded on three sides by open countryside and fronted by a quiet country lane. Historically a dairy supplying the wider estate, the property is set in 1.13 acres and includes the barns and a courtyard, a parking area and a walled paddock.

Following the successful sale of two residential development sites in Gorseinon and a four-acre former barracks in the Rhondda, Cooke & Arkwright has been instructed by the Reserve Forces & Cadets Association for Wales to market its Drill Hall in Knighton.

The property extends to 4,707 sq ft and is situated in the centre of the small market town close to public parking. It provides an excellent meeting hall with a variety of potential opportunities and comprises a large hall, several offices, storage...