Monday property news update
A big test for the office market
3 minutes to read
Central London‘s housing market outlook
The recent market revival has been unusual in one key respect: the epicentre has not been central London.
In August, the number of offers accepted in the capital was the highest monthly total in 20 years, but demand is higher in areas with a prevalence of family houses. Wimbledon, Islington and Wandsworth were the top three performing areas for price growth last month.
In this week's UK Property Market Outlook, Tom Bill delves into the outlook for central London, with a focus on: travel restrictions, Brexit, the US election and currency movements, all of which will influence prices and transactions in the months ahead.
Tracking the UK's economic recovery
The state of the UK's recovery will come into renewed focus this week. The ONS will tomorrow publish employment data for the three months to July, inflation data on Wednesday and the Bank of England will announce its decision on interest rates on Thursday.
Tomorrow's release may show the first notable rise in job losses since the beginning of the pandemic, as those previously listed as inactive began seeking work in a reopened hospitality sector. Employees who are on furlough fell from around 30% of the private sector workforce in May to around 11% by late August, according to the ONS. Even so, a report from the Institute for Employment Studies this morning suggests half a million jobs could be lost between May and July.
Meanwhile, Stephen Springham has the latest analysis of retail sales figures, which suggests the recovery is gathering pace as pent up demand is released.
Global house prices remain resilient
As we forecast in April, global house prices are proving resilient. Kate Everett-Allen's latest Global Residential Outlook reveals only 9% of countries saw prices decline year-on-year in the 12 months to June 2020 and seven countries still registered double-digit price increases year-on-year.
New data reveals growth in prices across China accelerated in August after a brief slowdown the previous month.
A big test for the office market
The next few weeks are expected to be a key test for the London office market with Knight Frank estimating the volume of office space available for sale in the capital totals £5bn.
In this week's Intelligence Talks podcast, Faisal Durrani tells Anna Ward why demand for London offices is rising, plus we hear from architecture professor Jason Pomeroy on what the 14th century can teach us about the resilience of cities. Listen now on Spotify, Acast, or Apple.
Elsewhere the FT has spoken to a number of business leaders who suggest that workers will settle into a permanent blend of home and office working, with offices used by staff for meetings and socialising, rather than traditional nine to five desk-bound work.
In other news...
In this week’s Rural Update Andrew Shirley looks at the impact of currency on commodity prices, takes a look at the progress of the UK’s various trade negotiations and shares a selection of the latest developments of interest to farmers and estate owners including funding to plant trees along the route of HS2.
Finally, Oxford and AstraZeneca resume their vaccine trial; Asian shares are buoyed by vaccine hopes; WHO reports record one-day increases in global cases; British business calls for a green recovery; and BP says the era of oil-demand growth is over.