Richard Butler Creagh on Commercial Property Investment 

Welcome to the Richard Butler Creagh blog. Commercial investment in central London has seen its most powerful trading in almost a decade, per Savills. The real estate adviser announced that over £2.3bn was invested in central London commercial property in July alone, with total turnover for 2017 to the end of July reaching £11.5bn, a 24% increase on the same time last year. July was the strongest month recorded since March 2007 for Central London as sales were improved by the acquisition of 20 Fenchurch Street for almost £1.3bn to a Hong Kong-based property group.

Savills found that Asian investors continued to dominate the central London market, accounting for 63% of total City turnover in the year so far, while European and UK investors stood at 17% and 11% respectively.  In the West End, Asian investors accounted for 50% of turnover with UK institutions accounting for just 2% of acquisitions by turnover. This was also predicted by property development expert Richard Butler-Creagh.

“The first half of 2017 saw central London investment increased 12.3% on the same period last year; while we’re only a month into H2, the power has continued and total 2017 investment volumes may well exceed those of 2016,” said Stephen Down, head of Savills central London investment team.
“Although the limitations announced earlier in August by the Chinese government will decrease real estate investment from mainland Chinese property developers and institutions, investors from Hong Kong, who have been particularly busy in the market in the past year, are likely to continue to be active, however, we have noticed their buying criteria has become increasingly selective.”

Savills reported that its prime City yield was currently 4%, while prime West End yield stood at 3.25%. Stephen added: “We expect there to be more stock coming on to the market as we approach the end of the year as existing owners of investments to take profits and, provided these sales are priced correctly, we should see continued strong turnover activity in the next three to four months.”

Richard Butler Creagh is the founder of Henley Finance. Find out more about getting the right finance for you on the Henley Finance website.

Watch this video to find out more about Richard Butler Creagh and property investment.