UK Commercial Property Update Survey may overstate the outlook for London office rents The tone of the latest CBI/PwC Financial Services survey was very positive and bodes well for the Central London office market in 2014. Although strong supply growth will tend to be a restraint on... 20th January 2014 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Return of institutions to the investment market is a good sign Commercial property transactions activity was strong in 2013 but, rather than the headline deals total, we think that the return of UK-based institutions to the investment market was more noteworthy... 16th January 2014 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Are our above-consensus rental forecasts too downbeat? Our expectations for GDP growth this year have been revised up and are well above consensus. However, our expectations for commercial property rental growth over 2014-15 (an average of more than 2.5%y... 13th January 2014 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update What are the Lloyds surveys telling us about property prospects? The short history of the Lloyds commercial property confidence survey tends to limit its usefulness as a guide for the physical market. Even so, the latest results were positive and, combined with... 7th January 2014 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Tech firms' importance to London is still increasing Although the technology, media & telecommunications sector is just one component of demand for London office space, its growth remains strong. Indeed, London now has more jobs in these “digital”... 12th December 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update What might the FLS changes mean for commercial property? The re-focussing of the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) away from mortgage lending and onto businesses, and in particular small to medium-sized enterprises, can only be a positive change for the... 11th December 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Are the prospects for distribution warehouses still positive? Recent yield shifts suggest that investors may have more confidence in the prospects for standard industrial rents than distribution warehouses. To us, the reverse is still more likely and... 4th December 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update South East offices at the forefront of the secondary recovery There were signs in IPD’s Q3 data that the recovery in secondary capital values has begun, albeit slow and not universal. Amongst the bright spots was the South East office market and, with rents now... 20th November 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Lease-related data not as bad as they might seem Recent industry figures show that new lease lengths ticked down again in 2012. Of course, shorter leases are nothing new. Moreover, and contrary to the tone of some commentary, growing numbers of... 13th November 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Restricted lending environment won't derail capital value rebound Banks and building societies continue to shrink their commercial property loan books and the signs are that this process still has further to run. Admittedly, there may now be scope for the... 16th October 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Transactions data add to positive news flow Transactions-based yields have fallen pretty sharply in recent months and, rather than technicalities to do with shifts in the mix of properties being traded, this is another sign of a genuine... 15th October 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update More evidence that rental gains will spread beyond London offices We suspect that the drop in financial services sector output indicated by the latest CBI/PwC survey was simply a seasonal lull and that Central London office rents will continue to grow. Moreover... 7th October 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Hotel returns should remain solid but not stellar Inbound tourism volumes continue to drift upwards and many UK residents are seemingly still content to save money and take a domestic holiday rather than go abroad. This should help hotel capital... 25th September 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Is the end in sight for the Central London shop boom? With yields already at low levels, the pace of Central London shop capital value growth is likely to slow over the next year or so. But with rents looking well-supported, falls in capital values in... 19th September 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update The prospects for Central London office rents have improved The Central London office market clearly still has a significant degree of momentum and we have revised up our rental growth forecasts by two or three percentage points each year for 2013 to 2015. 12th September 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update How quickly will faster economic growth feed into rental values? We recently revised up our GDP forecasts for both this year and next. Although it is tempting to conclude that commercial property occupier demand and rental values will be correspondingly stronger... 28th August 2013 · 1 min read