Confidence weaker but investment continues
Reuters is reporting this morning that the latest Commercial Property Confidence Monitor from Lloyds Banking Group shows that 46% of the property professionals from medium and large businesses surveyed this quarter expect no broad improvement in the UK’s property market before spring 2011.
Richard Dakin, head of Lloyds’ corporate real estate business support unit, said the levels of confidence seen in the survey appeared to reflect the wider plateau in rents and yields across the industry. He noted that net confidence had fallen since the previous quarter’s survey, and said this adjustment was probably a far more accurate reflection of today’s market fundamentals. The latest survey took place between July 19 and August 20.
The survey showed that fund managers were the most gloomy group of property professionals surveyed, with 56% expecting market activity to slow in the next three to six months and a third expecting the value of their clients’ property portfolios to decline over the same period. However, despite this, 62% were intending to invest during the next quarter. “Although fund manager sentiment is still cautious, the results make it clear that there remains a willingness to invest,” Dakin said.
“Certainly between September 2009 and March 2010 we saw an inflow of funds back into the sector, so a lot of managers now have a surplus of cash and are looking for strong investment options,” he added.
