Property Investment News - February 2010
26/02/2010Segro records 'resilient' real estate performance
Real estate investment trust (Reit) Segro has recorded what it described as a 'resilient' performance across its property portfolio over the course of last year. Segro's net asset value per share declined from 432p to 362p over the course of 2009, although it was boosted by a 9.8 per cent rise in the value of its UK investment property portfolio ...
26/02/2010Primary Health Properties records strong performance
Primary Health Properties (PHP) has posted new figures showing an improved performance from its real estate portfolio over the course of last year. The primary healthcare facility provider saw the value of its property portfolio rise by 7.9 per cent to £341.9 million, while its basic net asset value rose from 226.7p to 247.2p per share. PHP...
25/02/2010King: No extension for liquidity scheme
The governor of the Bank of England (BoE) has told MPs that the special liquidity scheme implemented to boost bank lending will not be extended next year. Mervyn King reaffirmed to the Treasury Select Committee that the BoE's three-year £200 billion initiative, which has enabled banks to trade mortgage-backed securities for more liquid gover...
25/02/2010Mucklow sees signs of improvement
Commercial property firm A&J Mucklow has posted a rise in the value of its real estate portfolio and an improvement in its financial position over the second half of 2009. The value of the group's property portfolio climbed by six per cent from June to £214.9 million by the end of December, having fallen by nine per cent over the precedi...
25/02/2010Minerva records recent improvement
Real estate firm Minerva has posted figures indicating a major turnaround in its performance over the second half of 2009. The value of Minerva's portfolio of investment real estate rose by 9.7 per cent from the start of July to £628.8 million by the end of December, while the value of its trading property climbed by 12.2 per cent to £3...
23/02/2010Better second half for Hammerson
Real estate investment trust (Reit) Hammerson has posted figures indicating a huge improvement in its performance over the second half of last year. While the value of Hammerson's portfolio of office and retail property declined by nine per cent during 2009 as a whole, it rose by six per cent over the second half of the year, driven by an 11 per ...
22/02/2010BoE: Real estate lending remains flat
Lending to the real estate sector was broadly stable over the past quarter, according to new figures from the Bank of England (BoE). Building society and bank lending to real estate firms, which accounts for nearly half of all corporate lending in the UK, only showed a slight decline during the final three months of last year, compared to the sam...
19/02/2010Westfield posts mixed real estate performance
Retail real estate group Westfield saw a mixed performance from its worldwide portfolio of shopping centres last year. Westfield reported that it had made $3.5 billion of downward property revaluations during 2009, mostly in the first half of the year, with its UK premises showing a 4.2 per cent fall in net operating income. However, its overall...
17/02/2010ING property fund benefits from new investment
A property fund managed by ING Real Estate Investment Management has successfully raised new finance following its recent restructuring. Investors in the ING Property Income Fund have injected £22.4 million of new investment into it, as part of the agreement that saw the vehicle restructured and its lifetime extended by a further 25 years. ...
16/02/2010IPD: Property value rebound slows
Real estate value growth slowed markedly last month, according to new figures from Investment Property Databank (IPD), although there were some positive signs on rents. The real estate analyst's index showed that commercial property value growth declined from three per cent in December to one per cent in January, as positive yield impact halved f...
15/02/2010ProLogis notes improving prospects
ProLogis European Properties (PEPR) has released figures showing an improvement in the performance on its real estate portfolio over the second half of last year. The distribution property owner's portfolio fell in value by just 5.3 per cent over the second half of 2009 and by only 0.4 per cent during the final quarter of last year, while its net...
12/02/2010British Land posts positive results
Property giant British Land has posted an increase in the value of its real estate assets for the last quarter and believes there is potential for further growth in future. The group reported that, over the three months to December, the value of its real estate portfolio grew by 8.2 per cent to £7.899 billion, comprising an 8.4 per cent incr...
11/02/2010New fund set to boost East Midlands property investment
The East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has established a new fund to provide investment in regional real estate projects designed to stimulate innovation. Set up to support the creation of technological, scientific and innovative facilities, the £20 million East Midlands Urban Development Fund (EMUDF) is intended to redress the impact o...
10/02/2010Fund raises finance for green property investment
Climate Change Capital (CCC) has announced the completion of a successful effort to raise funds for investment in eco-friendly real estate. The low carbon asset manager's property fund closed after raising £69 million for the purpose of retrofitting existing buildings in major UK cities so as to make them more sustainable and thereby reduce ...
09/02/2010IPD: Yields and rents move in 'counter-intuitive directions'
Investment Property Databank (IPD) director Ian Cullen has stated that differences in yield and rent movements reflect real estate's growing divergence from the wider economy. The real estate analyst's latest data indicates that property values rose by 8.1 per cent during the final quarter and total returns by ten per cent, but while yields also ...
08/02/2010HSBC launches new property fund
HSBC has finished raising finances for a new real estate fund, in which it has already begun making commercial property acquisitions across both the UK and continental Europe. This seven-year, €1 billion value-added fund, which draws on investment both from private sources and wealth managers, but also from the bank itself, will use debt on ...
05/02/2010Rics: Real estate recovery relies on occupier demand
Rents need to increase if long-term European commercial property investment is to become viable again, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has claimed. A report published this week by PriceWaterhousecoopers and the Urban Land Institute warned that economic weakness, the need to refinance huge debts and the possible withdrawal of r...
04/02/2010London doing well despite wider property malaise, says report
The European real estate sector is set for a very slow recovery, according to a new report, although investor sentiment regarding London has improved markedly. PriceWaterhousecoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) surveyed over 600 property sector figures, who acknowledged that credit conditions were easing and real estate values rising. How...
02/02/2010Report questions 'sustainability' of real estate recovery
The commercial property sector's recent revival is unlikely to continue this year amid unfavourable wider conditions, a new report has claimed. Having fallen by 44.2 per cent over the 25 months to July 2009, Investment Property Databank's figures indicate that real estate values subsequently climbed by 8.8 per cent between August and December. Y...
01/02/2010Real estate investment sector criticised over environmental record
Commercial property investment companies worldwide are failing to implement sufficiently eco-friendly policies, a new report has indicated. Of the 198 real estate firms that responded to the survey by the European Centre for Corporate Engagement, just 20 were found to have scored relatively highly both in terms of environmental management and pol...