Daily Update Thursday 16th July
The race to support property markets
2 minutes to read
Good morning,
Need to know
China's economy grew 3.2% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year, exceeding expectations.
Though undoubtedly a positive moment, shares in the region dipped due to the nature of the rebound, with the industrial sectors outperforming following massive government stimulus, while consumer spending remained weak.
UK shares rallied yesterday amid signs that positive news regarding a vaccine may be imminent.
In a phase-one trial involving about 1,000 British volunteers, a University of Oxford vaccine appears to have stimulated the desired response from the immune system. The results will be published on July 20th.
This follows news yesterday that Moderna's experimental vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an early-stage study.
UBS said its wealthiest customers took out loans to place billions into stock markets as they slumped at the onset of the outbreak. They are now looking to move their cash out of equities after profiting from an unprecedented sell-off and rapid rebound from March to May.
The property market
Kate Everett-Allen this morning updates our Global Residential Market Outlook.
There are some unifying themes emerging in global housing markets as demand side indicators like employment and income growth weaken.
Governments are looking to revitalise housing markets. In some, such as the UK, tax incentives have been employed, in others working visa programme have been expanded for example in Barbados, and finally some counties such as Spain have looked to bringing forward large-scale regeneration projects.
Of those countries that have published data for June, house prices fell by 0.2% on average over the quarter but increased 3.9% on an annual basis. To date, of these countries, only Luxembourg has seen a reversal in the direction of price growth post the pandemic.
In New York, the latest data from our partners Douglas Elliman confirms the coronavirus lockdown hit the rental market hard, driving Manhattan vacancy rates to their highest level in 14 years and pushing the number of June new lease signings to the lowest level seen in a decade.
However, unlike existing homes, new development rents continued to climb year-on-year.
Any questions, please contact me, or the team.