Demand strong for UK commercial property

Demand for UK commercial property remains strong despite the political and other challenges the market appears to be facing in the months ahead.

According to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest Capital Markets Report, London remains the world’s most popular city for global real estate investment, having outstripped the likes of Amsterdam, Paris and Hong Kong as the most popular destination for commercial property for nine of the past ten years.

The report notes that long-term investors in Britain’s commercial property market are “concerned” about Brexit, but confident that the market will remain robust.

It adds that in London in particular, investment has largely been dominated by overseas buyers, who continue to pump money into Britain’s capital. Specifically, Asian investors in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan remain very keen to snap up City office space.

However, separate research from real estate group JLL indicates that London is far from the only UK city attracting a lot of attention when it comes to commercial property.

JLL’s latest report reveals that Glasgow’s office market welcomed bumper investment in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, while the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, transacted more than 300,000 square-ft of office space during the same period.

Elsewhere, data from Savills has revealed that all across the country, demand remains strong for commercial property among domestic investors, who pumped some £18.8 billion into the market in the 12 months to September.

Written by Nick Davies - Partner at Mackrell Turner Garrett

Nick is the Head of Property in our London office, having joined in the firm in 2005. His expertise covers a wide range of real estate transactions, with cases including both residential and commercial property deals, shops, pubs, restaurants, development sites, offices, lease renewals, enfranchisement, litigation and corporate support.

Should you require any assistance with your commercial units please contact our expert Fleur Conway on fleur.conway@daboraconway.com

An interesting read from Property Industry Eye - High street agents get a 5% better price than onliners in almost three-quarters of cases.

An interesting read from Property Industry Eye - High Street Agents get a 5% better Price

High street agents achieve more viewings, more offers, and in almost three-quarters of cases a 5% better price than online-only firms.

The research, from The Advisory – an independent consumer advice group for house sellers – says that internet-only agents are very reliant on the portals to find buyers.

However, it says that while Rightmove generates 52% of viewings, it generates only 36% of offers and 27% of the best buyers.

High street agents generate 48% more viewings, 64% more offers, and in 73% of cases a 5% higher sale price.

On a £250,000 sale, that translates to a loss of £12,500, claims The Advisory, if an online-only firm has been used.

The firm clarified last night that its study was looking at passive intermediaries, versus local estate agents.

The Advisory says that the average UK high street estate agency fee is 1.18% plus VAT.

However, it adds that agents could be selling themselves short – and could be charging up to 4% commission plus VAT and still achieve a better result than an internet-only listing service charging £849.

A total of 202 sales were studied, and The Advisory says it makes no claim that its findings are definitive – just relevant.

It has not clarified the number of sales that went through online or high street agents, but  yesterday evening stressed that the research was largely into ‘passive intermediary’ versus ‘proactive local estate agent’.

The research was very quietly published on its own website by The Advisory in August, and has so far not been picked up by any other media.

It is part of a series of ongoing guides, the result of research over two years.

An earlier section of it queries the wisdom of sellers using online agents on the basis that professional house sellers do not.

It says that professional sellers include builders offering part exchange, corporate asset managers, and banks disposing of repossessed properties.

The research says: “Interestingly, we don’t know of any that use cheap online estate agents.

“Instead, they choose to put their sales in the hands of local, no sale no fee, high street estate agents.”

The Advisory is run by Gavin Brazg, who says that he is also a professional seller, managing a team which buys and sells houses on behalf of corporate relocation companies and developers offering part exchange.

He says that what he pays annually in estate agent fees is “not insignificant”.

However, estate agent fees are not his primary concern.

Instead he focuses on a “walkaway figure – the amount of money received from a sale after the cost of selling has been deducted”.

He says that sellers who do sell through an internet agent could be “stepping over the pounds to pick up the pennies”.

The latest guide is here:

https://www.theadvisory.co.uk/estate-agents/online-vs-high-street/

Its methodology is at: https://www.theadvisory.co.uk/estate-agents/online-vs-high-street/#anchor-7

EYE wants to be balanced in our coverage: we are neither nor against different agency models and simply report on the information made available to us, or that we find.

If readers can point us to wider or other information we will be very grateful.

FULL CREDIT FOR THIS ARTICLE TO -  ROSALIND RENSHAW, PROPERTY INDUSTRY EYE - https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/high-street-agents-get-a-5-better-price-than-onliners-in-almost-three-quarters-of-cases-claim/