Bit of gloom to end the week
Sunny skies outside, below the ash cloud from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, but cooler thoughts today at Property Week, where Giles Barrie says that the summer will be quiet, before a “very busy” final quarter this year. He believes the market is currently softening, thanks to the forthcoming General Election, the Easter holidays and the “awful lot” of property that is now up for sale.
Barrie is sticking to his March forecast that the commercial property market will cool off until September. He thinks action to cut the country’s deficit, despite the attendant spending cuts, will lift the mood later in the year, “rather like when a company’s share price rises when it announces job cuts”.
His comments come as the chief executive of property group Grosvenor has said we could be in for a “feel-bad” recovery after the recession. Mark Preston is keener on investing elsewhere, in countries such as Australia where there are more signs of a “sustainable recovery”.
Grosvenor yesterday reported a narrowing of pre-tax losses to £235.8m for 2009 from £593.9m in 2008. Preston told the Daily Telegraph that we are going to have to get used to the idea that there is not going to be an orderly recovery, given the UK’s vast deficit and the spending cuts that will be necessary to address it.
