Your morning market update from Knight Frank Research, Thursday 2nd April
Good morning,
2 minutes to read
Economic headlines
Last week’s rally in global equities is wavering as companies including UK banks cut dividends. Trading volatility continued overnight as shares in Asia pared losses and US equity futures rose, showing growing demand for riskier assets.
There is now a growing body of evidence that suggests Italy has turned a corner in its battle with Covid-19, as the growth in new cases slows there and across a range of European countries.
A study published yesterday, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on the UK's Covid-19 lockdown indicates human interactions have fallen 70% following its implementation. This suggests that those with the virus are infecting an average of 0.6 others, compared with 2.6 average transmissions before the measures were imposed.
Data from the US also shows restrictions including restaurant closures and stay-at-home orders are working.
Global seven-day growth in new cases slowed to about 107% as of March 31, from 123% on March 27, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Housing market implications
At 07:00 this morning, Nationwide confirmed that UK house prices climbed 3% during the year to March, the fastest rate of growth since January 2018. While the Covid-19 crisis will lead to short term price softening – the latest data from Nationwide does confirm the underlying strength of the market as the UK entered lockdown.
This morning we continue our analysis of global housing markets which provide lessons for the UK and beyond.
Flora Harley's investigation of events in Singapore confirms that residential sales there have been very resilient, largely due to the strength of demand from domestic buyers, with the most recent data pointing to year-on-year growth in activity.
For more information on markets across Asia Pacific, including home sales in China, see our APAC research wrap.
In the UK, Anna Ward takes a look at the rapid rise of the temporary use of property, where the government has converted the likes of business centres, warehouses, hotels, sports stadiums and even the car park at Chessington World of Adventures into medical facilities. This process may provide longer term lessons for the use of Permitted Development Rights in bringing under used commercial properties back into use.
Events in the mortgage market continue to change at a rapid pace, with lenders overhauling product lines, as we noted yesterday. David Forsdyke, later life finance expert at Knight Frank Finance, answers questions from older homeowners looking to cut their outgoings in his latest Q&A.
The research team will continue to update you as the current situation develops.
If you have any questions, please contact me, or the team.