New appetite for property, says JLL

CONFIDENCE is returning to the regional commercial property market and is stronger now than at any point since the financial crisis, according to the agent Jones Lang LaSalle.

Tim Luckman, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s North West valuation advisory team, told an audience at the firm’s spring briefing this morning that the market has passed its lowest point.

He said: “While the recovery is by no-means at full speed yet, the overall sentiment in the marketplace is more positive now than it has been for several years.

“The news I hear on a daily basis from the region’s property companies, private investors and developers is generally positive – occupier activity has improved, take-up is on the rise across all sectors and incentives are coming down.

“Investment sales for prime and good secondary assets are now typically subject to multiple bids, with premiums on some portfolio sales. Owner occupiers are returning, and my own team has valued more land in the last six months than at any time in the past five years; developers are finally dusting off their plans.”

Mr Luckman was joined by Dan Burn from industrial and logistics, Chris Mulcahy from office agency and Simon Merry from investment, in addition to Jonathan Heptonstall from the retail investment team in London and Andrew Burrell, the firm’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa forecasting.

Mr Burrell sounded a note of caution. “While there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that we may have reached the bottom of the market, there is no doubt that things remain tough and a sustained recovery remains dependent on wider events in the fragile global economy. The UK has only narrowly avoided a triple-dip recession itself and growth remains anaemic.

“Any improvement in confidence must also be seen within the context of the past few years, in which we have faced one of the most difficult property markets in a generation.”