Midweek property news update
The US election, retail's nightmare before Christmas and the resilience of rentals
2 minutes to read
We have a nail-biter
The US presidential race has turned into a nail-biter overnight and much now hinges on a few battleground states. Votes are likely to continue to be counted well into the week.
No states had yet flipped from their 2016 results as of 2am Eastern Time - or 7am in London - but several key states had huge portions of ballots still to be counted. Vote-counting in Michigan and Wisconsin is not expected to be completed until later today at the earliest. Pennsylvania won’t start counting votes until early Wednesday US time.
The dollar has strengthened as investors moved to safe haven assets although there have been few material swings in markets overnight while so much remains uncertain.
The UK heads for a different lockdown
Closer to home, the Prime Minister is expected to avoid a major Conservative party rebellion in the parliamentary vote seeking to introduce lockdown measures that will come into force on Thursday.
Whatever the outcome of the vote England's property market will remain open. Estate and letting agents can operate, show homes and sales suites can remain open, and property viewings, mortgage valuations and surveys can take place, according to a joint letter from the housing secretary and industry groups published yesterday. Home repairs and maintenance can also continue.
Retail's nightmare before Christmas
Stephen Springham this morning takes stock of the looming lockdown and what it will mean for retailers in the run up to Christmas.
However challenging November is, there will still be time for retailers to generate business – and pre-plan for a full assault if lockdown is lifted in early December. Three weeks would still be a decent window to claw back what momentum may have been lost in November, he writes.
Meanwhile, independent businesses, which account for 64% of the retail and leisure market, appear to be faring better than chains.
The resilience of rentals
We've talked in recent weeks about the resilience of the UK's rental markets that span Student Property, PRS and the Senior Living sectors. Over the last seven months, rent collection has averaged 95.4%.
Tomorrow morning you can hear more on this from our teams as well as Michael Vrana – Managing Director of Blackstone, Dan Batterton - Head of Build to Rent at Legal & General Investment Management and Stuart Carr-Jones – Head of Transactions for UK, Ireland & Emergent Europe at AXA Investment Managers, at our Residential Investment seminar. Sign up here.
In other news...
In a new agents' diary, Chris Druce heads to the Scottish Borders and Cumbria and Northumberland and checks in with Knight Frank's rural valuation team.
Crest Nicholson restores its dividend, Brexit negotiators race to reach breakthrough, and finally, as Japan moves to revive its countryside the pandemic chases many from cities.