Trafford deal drives record investment turnover
Published: 13 April, 2011
Shopping centre investment enjoyed its strongest quarter since 2007, according to DTZ
The property adviser calculates there were 17 completed shopping centre transactions in the first quarter of 2011 worth a total of £2.6bn. This is a significant increase on the total for the previous quarter, when there were ten completed shopping centre transactions,worth £1.5bn.
And activity is up significantly in the equivalent quarter of 2010 when 16 centres were sold for a total of £631m. However, the most recent quarter's figures are skewed by the take-over of the Peel Group by CSC, including the transfer of the Trafford Centre for £1.6bn. Without this deal, the £1.0bn remaining is still the second highest quarterly amount recorded since mid- 2007.
DTZ's market commentary says: “Q1 saw a limited number of assets brought to the market, although there was a significant increase in activity towards the end of the quarter. We are yet to see the banks play a significant role bringing stock to the market, however we do anticipate that this will change in the next quarter.
“There is a weight of money mainly targeting prime assets, which together with the shortage of stock, is putting further inward pressure on prime yields. Conversely, there has been reduction of available debt for secondary assets, which could place outward pressure on secondary yields in the remainder of 2011.”
And it concludes: "We anticipate that an increasing amount of distressed secondary stock will come to the market during the course of the year. Prime assets will continue to be scarce, with those assets that do come to the market achieving competitive pricing.”
