Value concerns in the capital, but investors still keen for UK Commercial property
Both investor and occupier demand edged up during Q3 for UK commercial property, but there is still a significant difference between sectors with industrial clearly outperforming, according to the Q3 2017 RICS UK Commercial Property Market Survey.
Survey in brief
- Rent expectations upbeat for industrial space, but flat for offices and negative for retail
- Pick-up in both domestic and foreign investment demand at the national level
- London continues to display more cautious sentiment with 73% of respondents in Central London sensing the market to be in some stage of a downturn.
Investment demand
In Q3, investment demand for commercial property continued to pick up, with 20% more respondents seeing an increase (rather than decline) in investment enquiries up from Q2 (+10%). Demand growth was strongest in the industrial sector, and weakest across retail. As domestic interest increases, interest from overseas buyers also rose across all areas of the market during Q3. Alongside this, near term capital value expectations point to strong growth across industrial assets, a modest rise in office prices, and little change for values across the retail sector.
What sectors are in demand?
Occupier demand in the quarter held steady at the headline level, with 5% more respondents seeing an increase as sentiment picks up. Looking at individual sectors, demand has increased strongly for industrial space (net balance +28%) and stabilised in the office sector, having fallen in Q2. Meanwhile, demand continued to fall for the second consecutive quarter in the retail sector.
On the back of sluggish demand in the office sector, landlord incentive packages on offer to tenants have no reportedly risen in five successive periods. Retail inducements also picked up, marking the second quarter running in which they have done so. By way of contrast, incentives continued to decline in the industrial sector.
Rents are rising
Given the occupier demand picture, it is unsurprising that near term rent expectations indicate firm growth in the industrial sector, a broadly flat picture for office rents, and a marginally negative one for retail at the UK level. Looking further out, over the year ahead, rental expectations are positive for both prime and secondary industrial space, prime offices and to a lesser extent prime retail space. The outlook for secondary office space remains flat. Conversely, the year ahead rental expectations for secondary retail are firmly negative, with rents still anticipated to decline.
A cautious capital
With regards to the regional breakdown, all-sector rent expectations in the near term are generally positive across most parts of the UK – with London again being the exception. In the capital, negative expectations in office and retail cancel out positive expectations for industrial rent.
London is in fact displaying more cautious sentiment than virtually all other parts of the UK in the near term including across demand and new development starts, although availability and inducements have picked up. While investment trends appear a little more resilient, headline capital value expectations are now more or less flat in the capital.
Current market conditions
In terms of valuations, across the UK as a whole, a strong majority of contributors (65%) sense the market is fairly valued at present (unchanged from Q2). Central London continues to exhibit the highest proportion of respondents viewing the market to be overpriced to some extent (67%). Meanwhile, 37% of respondents from the South East are now of the opinion that values are stretched relative to fundamentals, a steady increase on 16% who were taking this view three quarters ago.
Finally, during Q3, although views remain mixed, the largest share of contributors nationally feel conditions are consistent with the middle stages of an upturn (30%). In Central London, 73% of respondents sense the market to be in some stage of a downturn.
Kindly shared by RICS
