The market at the moment is quite odd. There seems to be a bit of activity; we are seeing a bit of movement in property. I have got some bids in on property I’m selling and I have just bought some property too. Getting deals over the line is pretty tough – due diligence is painful at best. Deals fall out of bed easily – often at the eleventh hour and often without warning.
But the latest figures suggest all is not well in the property world.
It seems that the total value of UK commercial property investment transactions in the first quarter of the year was £7.53 billion, down 27% on the same period for 2011. We had hoped that 2012 would be the start of a recovery.
Central London office investment broke £4 billion for the quarter – the highest figure since the financial crisis
Overseas investors spent £3 billion during the first quarter – representing 42% of all purchases. Interesting that the cash coming in is not from ‘here’.
Retail investment fell from £3.15 billion in the first quarter of 2011 to £1.42 billion in the latest quarter.
So statistically we are in a bad place. The real issue here is liquidity. There is little money around, Bank borrowing is not exactly easy. Loan To Value rates are poor – meaning you have to have quite a lot of equity to put into a deal.
My real issue is that I can’t see what is changing in the short term? The Banks have a negative attitude to any sort of risk at the moment – property is seen as risky. This doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon?









