OFFICES

Leading Indicators - 10 August

Key economic and financial metrics, and what to look out for in the week ahead
Written By:
William Matthews, Knight Frank
1 minute to read
Categories: Property Sector Offices service Consultancy Topic Covid-19 Economics Forecast World Regions UK

In this edition:

  • Are we at the start of a construction super cycle? The UK government has £600bn reserved for infrastructure, mirroring trends globally. Major real estate projects will clearly arise from this super cycle, but at what cost? Global demand is set to fuel prices for building materials – for example, the cost of cement and concrete in the UK was 17% higher in June 2021 than in the year prior.
  • A surprisingly hawkish tone from The Bank of England. The likelihood of future rate hikes has been announced, potentially to 0.25% by next year and 0.5% by 2024. Once 0.5% has been achieved, the BoE has indicated that the focus would turn to unwinding QE. For all the hawkish tone, the fact is we could see a continued low interest rate environment for some time and there shouldn’t be a material impact on property yields.

Download the latest Dashboard here