Midweek property news update - 25 August
Cities in demand, the great milkshake shortage and an ESG-insider goes rogue
4 minutes to read
Cities
Each year we poll homebuyers globally to get early insights into how demand for housing is shifting. This year's edition, based on responses from 900 Knight Frank clients, provides a unique insight into the impact Covid-19 has had on housing markets around the world.
Kate Everett-Allen explores some key findings this morning. One in five global buyers say they've moved since the beginning of the pandemic, rising to one in four in Australasia and North America.
Of those that have yet to move, 20% say they are more inclined to move in the next 12 months, suggesting housing markets will remain busy this year. Perhaps most interestingly is the extent to which cities are back in favour. Of those that are more inclined to move in the next 12 months, 38% are looking at a city location, while 33% are considering the suburbs.
New York
Many have been betting on the resurgence of urbanisation for some time. See Blackstone's Jon Gray back in October, for example.
It's apt, then, that Blackstone has issued a vote of confidence in Manhattan's prime residential market by issuing Related Companies with a $258m credit facility to refurbish an apartment building in Tribeca - see the FT piece.
There were 3,417 sales in Manhattan during the second quarter, making it the busiest quarter since 2015, according to Douglas Elliman. Though many of the reasons for the rebound are New York-specific, which I explored in detail here, the resumption of urbanization across global cities will be a dominant theme over the next twelve months.
Milkshakes
A number of UK economic indicators point to more strain on supply chains and increasing competition for staff over the coming weeks, both of which have been hitting construction sites and retailers in recent months.
Closures of Nandos and oddly sombre broadcasts on shortages of McDonald's milkshakes have moved the issue to the front and centre of public consciousness. Data suggests stock shortages across British industry are now at their worst levels since the CBI began collecting records back in 1977.
Meanwhile, Amazon is paying new warehouse recruits a £1,000 bonus in an effort to secure enough workers and employers’ desire to hire is now close to record highs, according to a new survey by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation.
UK transactions
UK home sales dropped 63% in July compared to a month earlier, according to official figures published yesterday. That was to be expected. June saw the most sales on record amid a rush to beat the deadline for the tapering of the stamp duty holiday.
We're likely to see more volatility in sales over the coming months as the stamp duty holiday tapers further, but all-in-all this marks the beginning of a return to more normal market conditions. For more on that, see this piece from Tom Bill on why the end of the stamp duty holiday is a good thing.
ESG
The world of investing led by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) themes is full of naysayers who, rightly or wrongly, criticise the movement for everything from greenwashing to misleading marketing and the murky business of measuring social good - an issue we probed late last year.
Some are worth paying more attention to than others, and two from the past fortnight are worth sharing. Mervyn King's latest Bloomberg column suggesting recent moves by central banks to probe how they can solve society's problems are misplaced. "Some of society’s problems warrant a monetary response," he says. "Most do not."
Second comes this much shared Medium post by Tariq Fancy, former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock. The FT's Unhedged newsletter had a good write up for readers short of time. Mr Fancy gives myriad reasons why he believes enthusiasm for ESG is actually damaging to the most important causes it purports to support.
In other news...
FD Intelligence covers the revival of Dagenham, from job creation, to the future of Ford’s plant there and the rise of film studios. For more, see our latest research on the area.
In a new retail market update, Stephen Springham covers the latest retail figure and asks - first Asda, then Morrison’s, now Sainsbury’s?
Photo by Jordan on Unsplash