Britain’s commercial property market has begun to blossom, according to figures from CoStar Group.
Investment in commercial property reached a six-year high of £12.7bn in the third quarter and then increased by a further 50% in the final quarter, topping £19bn. Annual commercial property investment volumes reached £53bn in 2013, the highest figure since 2007.
CoStar said that just over half of the cash spent in the UK came from domestic investors; while of the remainder, buyers from the Middle East and Far East were most numerous with £9.2bn-worth of deals.
Mark Stansfield, CoStar senior real estate analyst, said: “The combined factors of a low interest rate environment, easing eurozone instability, the UK’s economic turnaround and the wall of money coming from overseas created a tsunami effect, leading to an annual figure that few would have predicted at the start of the year.”
CoStar also revealed that average office yields dropped from 8.8% to 8.5%, while industrial yields are down from 9.8% to 9%.
Source: Financial Times
We say: And it’s about time too! But we’d like to think that the purchasers are aware of the changes to be enacted from April 2014 that restrict the ability of commercial property purchasers to claim valuable capital allowances on properties retrospectively – so if your solicitors don’t build in the capital allowance aspects into the contract on purchase, you lose the right to all future allowances from that building. Jeepers….! What should you do?…. 1) if you have a commercial property but aren’t claiming capital allowances – have a chat to us now before it’s too late! 2) if you’re buying a new commercial property – talk to us in plenty of time to secure the capital allowances available to you….
