Filtered by Subscriptions: UK Commercial Property Use setting UK Commercial Property
All-property rental values increased by 0.1%m/m in February, enough to boost the annual growth rate to 1%. That was the best figure since August 2008. The office rental recovery continues to lead, but the industrial upturn is also increasingly …
28th March 2014
February’s drop in CPI inflation does nothing to reduce the overhang of vacant retail space or the challenges of meeting consumers’ changing shopping habits. But it does bring the end of the squeeze on real incomes and, potentially, an end to the retail …
26th March 2014
It is tempting to view the recent spike in capital values in the South East office market as a sign of overheating. Yet the gains to date seem consistent with rapidly improving occupier market conditions and do nothing to alter our view that the recovery …
20th March 2014
Official data confirm that institutional demand for UK commercial property assets ended last year on a high. However, more timely data suggest that 2014 has got off to a quieter start. Nevertheless, with the economic recovery set to continue, investment …
19th March 2014
Data from the Bank of England show that banks and building societies are continuing to scale back their exposure to the property sector at a rapid rate. But a growing body of survey and anecdotal evidence suggests that gross lending volumes are also now …
13th March 2014
London’s share of commercial property transactions slumped to a four-year low in Q4 last year. But rather than a sign of problems in the London market, which in fact remains buoyant, the data serve to emphasise how rapidly confidence in regional and …
10th March 2014
Today’s PMI showed that commercial property construction growth slowed a little in February. But it is still growing rapidly and suggests that developers are very confident about the prospects for occupier demand and rents. … Construction PMI (Feb.) and …
4th March 2014
Net property lending by banks and building societies remains negative. But we suspect this is only because distressed stock is finally being sold and the debt repaid. Indeed, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that gross new lending is rising and that …
3rd March 2014
Respondents to the latest IPF Consensus survey more or less doubled their projections for capital value growth this year, reflecting a view that yields will fall more quickly than previously thought. Respondents then expect rental growth to take over as …
28th February 2014
We doubt that UK asset prices will be undermined significantly by the onset of tighter monetary policy in the UK or overseas. Admittedly, history suggests otherwise – the global monetary tightening cycle that began after the early 1990s recession resulted …
27th February 2014
Investment market activity made a slightly subdued start to 2014, but at least part of this looks likely to have been due to some deals having been “pulled forward” into December. Either way, we think January’s figure will prove to be nothing more than a …
24th February 2014
As we had been anticipating, non-prime property has started to outperform prime. Our forecast is that average non-prime capital values rise by 10% this year and about 6% in 2015. That will be stronger than the gains for prime property of about 5% each …
20th February 2014
Anecdotal evidence suggests that, in general, the worst has passed for retail occupier markets. This is yet to become absolutely apparent in the IPD data, but at least more segments are now recording rental gains than a year ago. And with the consumer …
19th February 2014
Our view is that Bank Rate is on hold until late next year. But even if that is wrong and the monetary policy tightening cycle begins this year, market interest rates and the health of the economy matter much more for commercial property than Bank Rate. …
13th February 2014
The commercial property market is in something of a “sweet spot” at present, with improved investor confidence and low interest rates supportive of yield falls, and the growing economy likely to kick-start a rental value recovery. After an increase of 4% …
11th February 2014
Recent data suggest that occupier demand for industrial property is recovering at least as strongly and widely as for the other sectors. Although there are signs that developers are already planning a supply response, there is scope for 2014 to see the …
5th February 2014
The CIPS/Markit construction PMI suggests that, in January, commercial property developers expanded their workloads at the fastest pace in more than six years. Clearly, developers are confident about the prospects for occupier demand and rental growth and …
4th February 2014
Net commercial property lending by banks and building societies was negative again in December. But there are signs that this long phase of deleveraging is coming to a close, and positive net lending later this year would not be a surprise. … Lending to …
30th January 2014
Today’s RICS survey showed that the occupier market recovery now encompasses all sectors and regions, pointing to healthy gains in rents this year. … RICS Commercial Property Market Survey (Q4 …
28th January 2014
All-property rental values rose by 0.25%m/m in December, the fourth rise in a row and the largest since November 2007. Offices and industrial property are faring best, but there are also signs that a floor for rents may be in sight for the long-struggling …
23rd January 2014
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 rental values, the survey suggests that we could be too …
20th January 2014
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. We expect institutions to remain active this year, …
16th January 2014
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/y) are already as strong as any other forecaster’s …
13th January 2014
The latest RICS survey indicates the construction sector recovery is gathering pace, with private housebuilding and commercial property development leading the way. … RICS Construction Survey (Q4 …
10th January 2014
The tone of the latest Credit Conditions survey was positive, with the supply of and demand for credit rising in both the residential and commercial property sectors in Q4 last year. But lenders seem to be more circumspect about how activity may pan out …
8th January 2014
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 encouraging data from Lloyds’ wider business sentiment …
7th January 2014
Net commercial property lending remained negative in November last year, but it would be no surprise to see nascent signs of a fresh pick-up by the end of this year. Elsewhere, the latest construction PMI suggests that commercial property developers …
3rd January 2014
For the third month in a row, November saw all-property rental values tick up by 0.1%m/m. Clearly these are modest gains. But rental growth should accelerate next year as a more broad-based occupier recovery commences. Indeed, there are already signs that …
23rd December 2013
As we suggested was likely to be the case, net sales of commercial property by investing institutions in the second quarter proved to be just a temporary blip. Institutions made strong net purchases in Q3 and it would be no surprise to see these inflows …
20th December 2013
Jobs growth in the financial & business services (FBS) sector was strong again in the third quarter. In fact, on past form, the data suggest that our forecast for City and West End office rents to grow by roughly 3% in 2014 could be a little pessimistic. …
18th December 2013
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” activities than in core financial services. So with the …
12th December 2013
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 commercial property market. In addition to underpinning …
11th December 2013
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 distribution warehouses remain amongst the segments that we think …
4th December 2013
The latest construction PMI points to solid confidence in the outlook for occupier demand, supporting our view that 2014 will see a meaningful rental recovery. … Construction PMI (Nov.) and Mergers & Acquisitions (Q3 …
3rd December 2013
Net commercial property lending was negative again in October but, to us, the end of the deleveraging process now seems to be coming into sight. … Lending to commercial property …
29th November 2013
The latest Colliers/Real Estate Capital survey shows that investor sentiment continues to improve, with more regional and/or secondary property coming into favour. However, respondents' expectations are still pretty cautious. Indeed, the data also show …
27th November 2013
All-property yields fell a little further in October, helping capital values to rise by 0.6%m/m. This took the total gain since April to 2% and was also enough to push the year-on-year growth rate into positive territory, for the first time in 20 months. …
21st November 2013
UK markets are being supported by a favourable combination of accelerating economic growth, weakening inflation and very low interest rates. Granted, the MPC has brought forward to the third quarter of 2015 the point at which it expects the jobless rate …
20th November 2013
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 rising and yields looking high, secondary capital …
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 landlords will actually be happy about this, as it will …
13th November 2013
We expect IPD all-property capital values to rise by 8% next year and 5% in 2015, well ahead of our previous forecasts and the current consensus (both about 2% per annum). The upgrades reflect the recent improvement in occupier and investor confidence, …
12th November 2013
Today's RICS data point to an emphatic rebound in occupier market confidence and activity, supporting our view that there'll be a solid rental recovery next year. … RICS Commercial Property Market Survey (Q3 …
8th November 2013
The CIPS/Markit construction PMI suggests that confidence in the prospects for commercial property occupier demand is now firmly entrenched. IPD all-property rental values have already shown signs of a recovery in the past few months and today's data …
4th November 2013
Net new lending to commercial property was negative again in September. But lenders' exposure to property is now at its lowest level in a decade and the scope for this long period of deleveraging to end next year is surely increasing. … Lending to …
29th October 2013
All-property rental values ticked up by 0.1%m/m in September while yields edged lower. As a result, capital values rose by 0.6%m/m. That was the largest monthly gain since April 2010. But perhaps more notable was the fact that capital values rose in all …
28th October 2013
Growing numbers of investors appear to be looking beyond London and other prime markets, and for many Manchester seems to be a key target. Our top-down analysis suggests that the prospects for rents and yields in Manchester are positive, especially for …
23rd October 2013
Today's RICS Construction Survey had a distinctly positive tone, with both residential and commercial property activity reported to have risen strongly in Q3. This points to developers having confidence in the prospects for occupier demand and clearly …
22nd October 2013
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 deleveraging to end a little sooner than we previously thought, …
16th October 2013
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 improvement in investor demand and market pricing. Commercial …
15th October 2013
Although there were some encouraging signs, the big picture from today’s Bank of England Credit Conditions survey was that lenders still seem nervous about expanding their residential or commercial property lending activities. But at least the rise in …
9th October 2013
