Just £3bn
was invested in the second quarter, less than a fifth of the £15.4bn
invested in the first quarter, according to Colliers International.
Industry
figures have attributed the decrease to current valuation uncertainty. John
Knowles, head of national capital markets at Colliers, said this had “probably
taken away 20% of the market players from being able or wanting to transact”.
Roger
Clarke, managing director at the International Property Securities Exchange
(IPSX), added that “without transparency or clarity, investors simply do not
know how much an asset is worth, which has inevitably led to a slump in
transactions”.
However,
he said investors were still keen to invest in UK property and had done so
indirectly through the public markets instead over the past three months.
Fundraising
in the UK listed property market in Q2 accounts for 40% of all fundraising on
the listed property market since 2019.
“These
businesses have had little trouble finding investors that believe in
their long-term viability,” said Clarke. “This is all investment in the
business to drive it forward, rather than any distressed rescue financing.”
Most of
the fundraisings have been sector-specific, such as the £673m SEGRO raised in
June for logistics assets, or the £300m Unite raised to expand its student
housing development pipeline.
Knowles
was confident that investment volumes would start to pick up later this
year.
“Unless
there is a backward step in the easing of lockdown, we expect a lot of product
launches in September, so the uplift is likely to be much more in Q4 when these
products transact than in Q3,” he said, adding that there was a lot of money
waiting to come into real estate because it is one of the few asset classes
with a good income return attached.
“Furthermore,
the UK is still the number-one global destination for overseas capital,” he
said.