DTZ has warned that uncertainty in the financial markets has already begun to hit office investment and tenant demand.
Speaking at the company’s AGM, chairman Tim Melville-Ross reiterated the company’s strong results for the last financial year, but warned that there were troubled times ahead.
In the UK, investment demand had started to ease from the beginning of the year as we had expected, particularly for secondary property, but this has deepened over the last few weeks,’ he said.
‘There are also signs of a pause in occupational demand in the financial sector for some substantial pre-lets, albeit that space is in short supply.’
On a positive note, Melville-Ross said that there was still strong demand from cash-rich buyers, and that the market was reacting sensibly to the changes affecting it.
‘To balance this, there remains reasonable underlying investment demand at appropriate pricing, particularly from equity purchasers, and there is evidence that vendors are being quick to re-price to market, which should help future activity levels,’ he said.
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