Opportunities arise in property market
YORKSHIRE’S commercial property market is “bursting with opportunities” and those businesses that seek the best professional advice now will emerge from the downturn stronger and fitter.
That was the message from a seminar hosted by national commercial property consultancy, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), in partnership with Leeds-based law firm, Brooke North.
Opening the seminar, entitled ‘Practical tips to surviving the downturn’, Richard Wackett, head of LSH’s Leeds office, said that, while the commercial property market had suffered all time lows in terms of capital and rental values, with the north seeing the greatest slowdown in activity, recent price adjustments had now begun to stimulate investor interest.
Following his summary of the key issues contained within the Chancellor’s Budget announced last week, Dominic Rayner, senior manager in the property tax Group at KPMG, gave advice on a number of innovative strategies for tax planning during the downturn.
Providing a lawyer’s perspective, Robert Kelly, partner at Brooke North, highlighted the key opportunities arising for both owners and occupiers throughout the course of a lease, suggesting that flexibility was the main driver of recovery.
Mr Kelly said: “Landlords, as an act of self-preservation, as opposed to charity, have a duty to offer a flexible approach towards the structuring of leases in order to restore the collapse in confidence that has occurred.”
In addition to providing an overview of the commercial property market, Mr Wackett also provided an evaluation of the recently published RICS and LSH joint survey into the impact of the Government’s Empty Property Rates (EPR) legislation, which found that EPR is negatively impacting on the regeneration of our towns and cities.
Speaking after the event, Mr Wackett added: “While we are by no means out of the woods yet, it is clear from all three presentations that opportunities do exist and investors, landlords and occupiers alike should start to plan for the upturn now in order to take advantage of them and emerge from these challenging times stronger and fitter.”
