Should we be concerned about institutions’ property sell-off?

At face value, net disposals of property by investing institutions in each of the past three months could be a sign that capital values will start to fall again very soon. Equally, however, it could simply reflect the normal late-year rise in institutions’ gross property sales activity, with little wider significance. Yet, when added to other evidence, institutions’ recent net sales certainly do nothing to contradict our view that capital values will decline by 5% to 6% in 2012 as a whole.