Category Archives: Commercial Property

Residential vs. Commercial Property Investment

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Commercial vs. Residential Property

As obvious as it seems, it is vitally important to understand what types of properties and projects you wish to invest in, across both the residential and commercial markets. Specialised commercial property portals are less common placed than their residential counterparts, but listing sites such as Commercial People can help make your first steps into commercial property investment that little bit easier. In general, investing in commercial property is often significantly more cost-prohibitive than investing in the residential market, meaning you’ll often need significant financial backing to enter the market. As with all investment, there is an element of risk involved; however, while investing in commercial property can offer significant financial rewards, there is also an equally significant risk with the financial barrier to entry often higher than a residential venture. As such, commercial investing can be considered more financially... [Read More]

Allsop on Early 2018 Property Auction Activity

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With ongoing evidence that the London and South East markets may already be undergoing a correction phase, it is always worth observing behaviour in the property auction room to gauge where things stand amongst investors and traders.  We spoke to Gary Murphy – partner at one of the UK’s largest property auctioneers Allsop – shortly after their mid-February sale (the first of 2018)… As it’s now possible to watch Allsop’s auctions live online, it was interesting to see that there was a healthy level of sales happening in the room? Yes, we were all quite surprised at how buoyant and vibrant the room was – particularly as there has been lot of concern about certain areas of the market cooling off.  The enthusiasm for buying decent stock in the London and South East has not waned.  I must say we... [Read More]

The Future of Student Housing

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Held in late June 2017, this half-day conference explored some of the issues of the day facing the student housing sector – with a range keynotes and panel discussions involving investors, agents, sector professionals, amongst other stakeholders and representatives.  Topics approached included the current state of play and challenges; ongoing investment interest; an innovative student mortgage finance model; perspectives from a student landlord; how to balance quality with affordability; student housing development financing and some direct insights into how the sector is attending to real student needs. We have outlined some of the key takeaways from these presentations over this long-form post.  Please click on the links in the contents box below to head to specific topics of interest and use the arrows to scroll back up. The State of Play and Challenges for the Student Housing Sector  Karen Burke,... [Read More]

The 2017 London Residential Summit (Estates Gazette)

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Estates Gazette´s early May event sought to address a number present-day questions relating to the current state of London´s residential property sector. Introduction Against a backdrop of Sterling´s post-Brexit devaluation, a marked decline in high-end property prices and the threat of skills shortages, many of the discussions were nonetheless refreshingly directed towards sustainable, non-speculative industry growth. With the government´s housing white paper now in play, the issue of whether “action will follow talk” was deliberated alongside frequent mention of the build to rent sector´s role in tackling the Capital´s housing shortage.  Other conversations included panel discussions amongst Outer London Borough council on the future of housing delivery, advancing social housing delivery in the capital´s estate communities and a very interesting debate amongst leading Housing Associations. London´s Housing Plan Reflecting on the first anniversary of Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty, Deputy Mayor for... [Read More]

Acuitus Auctions on Transitioning from Residential to Commercial Property (Part 1)

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In a “post-Section 24” operational environment, the changing face of residential buy-to-let has spurred investors to explore alternative strategies as means of not only overcoming the impending punitive tax burden but also diversify into other asset classes. For capitalised buyers, the case for commercial property as a potential direction of travel is a compelling one: finance costs that are fully tax-deductible, lower stamp duty at purchase, Full Repairing and Insuring (FRI) leases and simplified enforcement of contractual breaches are just some of the commonly-cited advantages. However, evidence does suggest that the risks may be greater as investors can end up more susceptible to market swings, legislation and sector-specific behavioural shifts.  From the outset therefore, successfully investing in commercial property ultimately requires meticulous due diligence alongside an inherent ability to forecast changing trends well into the future. We were very grateful to have a conversation on this subject with Richard... [Read More]

Acuitus Auctions on Transitioning from Residential to Commercial Property (Part 2)

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Following on from part 1 of our interview with Richard Auterac, chairman at commercial auction house Acuitus, we continued to explore the question of due diligence and how building relationships with commercial agents and attending auctions is fundamental to gain a greater understanding of the sector. No contemporary interview would be complete without asking about the EU referendum and Richard also gave us his thoughts on how business rate reforms may impact buying decisions in the coming years. Finally we approached the office building segment, the rapid growth of schemes with B1 to C3 Permitted Development Rights and gained some practical insights on buying commercial property at auction. — PIB: Ruban Selvanayagam from the Property Investor´s Blog RA: Richard Auterac from Acuitus Commercial Property Auctions — PIB:  Do you have specific advice on how an investor can engage in more granular research? RA: My view is that if you are a first-time commercial buyer, it... [Read More]

Allsop on What to Expect from the 2017 Property Auction Season

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Prior to their next auction on 16th February, we asked Gary Murphy – partner at Allsop and vice chair of the RICS Auctioneering Group – for some of his reflections on last year´s auction market, current residential yield trends, some broad expectations for 2017, the growth of mixed-use opportunities as well as his thoughts on foreign investor appetite. (1) Despite many predicting to the contrary, it would appear that Brexit had a relatively negligible impact on house prices thus far – how would you best describe overall activity in the auction room during the course of 2016? Examining 2016 as a whole, the proportion of purely residential property coming on to the market remained similar to 2015 (83%).  Allsop sold £432 million of residential stock in 2016, down by 2% year on year with a sales success rate of 78%.  In our last auction... [Read More]

Commercial Property Investment – Panel Discussion at the Central London Property Meet

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Below is a brief synopsis of another interesting panel held at the Central London Property Meet, exploring the merits of commercial property investment. Left to right in the photo below,  Ranjan Bhattacharya (Property Investor), Barry Shaw (Commercial Property Lawyer) Am Kainth (Property Investor), Piragash Sivanesan (Director of Totum Finance) and Daryl Norkett (BDM for Shawbrook Bank) all contributed to the discussion. Fairly London-centric in terms of focus, it was observed that commercial property values have not seen the rapid appreciation relative to the residential sector in recent years – potentially presenting wider and more dynamic investment angles in a “post section 24” operational environment.  Some important cost savings include lower stamp duty liability and the potential for VAT to be excluded or recovered post-completion (depending on the circumstances of the transaction).  FRI (Full Repairing and Insuring) leases combined with recoverable... [Read More]