2019 forecast: Chris Geaves (Sovereign Centros)

While there will continue to be pressure on banking covenants in some weaker assets and a realisation that a lot of weaker retail assets are overvalued, investors understand that there is good value in parts of the retail sector and that despite headwinds of the internet, retailer failures etc, bricks and mortar will always be the winner.

I also expect Iocal authorities to take a more leading role in protecting and investing in their city and town centres working with partners like us to ‘hold their hand’ through a repositioning process and that ‘mixed use’ will be the term for 2019 as owners recognise the need to inject new life and uses into their assets.

Resolution: Stay fit, work hard for the business and ensure our business satisfies and meets our investor/partner requirements. As well as continuing to strive to maximise returns, we want to grow our development management business and expand our distribution and mixed-use/residential development base.

It’s not a resolution but an ambition to promote and undertake a major ground-breaking ‘new wave’ leading retail/mixed-use scheme.

Chris Geaves, chief executive at Sovereign Centros