Your daily market update from Knight Frank Research, Wednesday 8th April
Good morning
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Economic headlines
Stocks in Asia extended a rally into a third day as the spread of Covid-19 continued to show signs of slowing.
After a month of tightening lockdowns across Europe, Austria, the Czech Republic and Denmark will become the first European countries to loosen restrictions on daily life and business.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care. The government's chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance said yesterday that the rate of new infections is showing signs of "flattening off".
The pound has recovered some of the losses it experienced early in the week following Boris Johnson’s admission to hospital and appears to have stabilised at $1.23.
Property market headlines
Mortgage lenders are adjusting to doing business amid restrictions on movement with skeleton staff. Private banks that had two weeks ago insisted on in-person valuations before granting loans are easing those restrictions and accepting remote and desktop valuations.
That move that will stem declines in activity across prime markets, which had their best start to the year for some time. The number of super-prime (£10 million-plus) sales in London reached a three-year high in the first quarter of 2020, writes Tom Bill.
Kate Everett-Allen's study of the latest residential market indicators from around the world includes analysis of Knight Frank web traffic, which monitor online property viewings. The data shows an uptick in activity in the last fortnight, particularly across France, Spain and Italy.
This week, Knight Frank research has been analysing residential data to compare current conditions with previous downturns. Today, Philippa Goldstein probes data from the hospitality industry to better understand the impact of the outbreak on the hotel market.
If you have any questions, please contact me, or the team.