Filtered by Region: Europe Use setting Europe
The spread between the 10-year Gilt yield hedged in US dollar terms and the 10-year Treasury yield has widened dramatically of late. But given our forecasts for short-term interest rates in the UK and the US and the unhedged government bond yields in …
14th October 2022
Its widely accepted that the jump in mortgage rates from 1.5% last autumn to 6% means that a significant fall in house prices is now inevitable. In this Update we set out how we came to our forecast that prices will fall by around 12% in nominal terms, …
10th October 2022
Recent revisions to our euro-zone interest rate and bond yield view suggest there is upside risk to our forecasts for prime commercial property yields. With the deteriorating economic outlook also set to weigh on rental growth, this suggests the …
7th October 2022
Falls in Paris Centre West vacancy are expected to support a further pick-up in prime office rents in the second half of the year. But this will be short-lived, with the deteriorating outlook for employment growth set to weigh on occupier demand and …
4th October 2022
Looser-than-expected fiscal policy following the mini-Budget means we now expect Bank Rate and gilt yields to be higher. All else equal, that would push the spread between the 10-year yield and all-property equivalent yields to its lowest since the GFC. …
With no end in sight to China’s zero-COVID policy, the dearth of Chinese tourists visiting Europe will suppress a key revenue source for luxury retailers and poses a downside risk to our already-weak prime retail rental forecasts. And even though …
30th September 2022
With the winter fast approaching and concern about natural gas supply from Russia looming large, we reviewed the relationship between temperature and gas demand in the EU. The key point is that the temperature, whilst important, will be a weaker driver of …
While the market reaction to the Italian election was muted, we think that the worsening economic outlook and concerns about debt sustainability will result in increased risk aversion toward Italian property assets. This means that, after a strong H1, …
28th September 2022
Although the latest sell-off in Gilts has been driven in part by expectations for higher interest rates, the accompanying fall in sterling suggests the risk premia attached to UK assets has risen. In our view, in the absence of a concerted attempt to …
27th September 2022
European policymakers have been discussing how to tackle skyrocketing energy prices in the region to ease the financial pain for households and firms this winter. In this Update , we answer five key questions about Europe’s plans to deal with surging …
12th September 2022
The rapidly worsening economic backdrop has put the brakes on Germany’s prime retail recovery. After showing strength in the second half of last year, take-up has now slowed in most of the main markets and prime rents are falling in some. Looking ahead, …
9th September 2022
We don’t think Europe will be forced to widely ration natural gas this winter because the sky-high price should attract sufficient LNG from abroad to replace reduced imports from Russia, whilst also weighing on demand. However, we do see a few risk …
8th September 2022
While euro-zone prime industrial rents surprised on the upside in Q2, investor sentiment also turned more rapidly than we expected. Tight supply will support rents this year, even as economic activity worsens. However, the unsupportive interest rate …
6th September 2022
We continue to expect euro-zone “peripheral” spreads to rise over the remainder of the year, owing to a combination of deteriorating appetite for risk, higher policy rates, and ambiguity about the ECB’s willingness to support the peripheral bond market. …
5th September 2022
Gazprom’s decision to shut Nord Stream 1 indefinitely has added to the risks facing Germany’s economy, but the size of the economic damage is still highly uncertain. And the €65bn fiscal package announced by the government will soften the blow to …
While US and euro-zone 10-year government bond yields have surged over recent weeks, we think this sell-off has mostly run its course – we expect these yields to end this year a bit below their current levels. The yields of 10-year government bonds in the …
2nd September 2022
The outlook for industrial demand in Poland has improved dramatically because of the pandemic and the rapid growth of ecommerce. This is set to keep prime industrial rental growth in Warsaw higher than we had previously expected, especially in the near …
1st September 2022
While attention has understandably focused on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech made last Friday, there were also important interventions over the weekend by ECB policymakers. These suggest that the risks to our above-consensus forecasts for …
29th August 2022
The surge in natural gas prices is a key reason why we expect Italy to fall into recession soon. If Russia stopped exporting gas to Europe entirely, Italy would suffer more than most but less than Germany. Even before the latest surge this month, the …
26th August 2022
We expect the spread between the yields of 10-year German and Swiss government bonds to widen further over the remainder of this year. The spread between 10-year German and Swiss government bond yields has widened sharply this year , with the former …
25th August 2022
We have revised up our forecasts of the European natural gas price due to the scale of Russia’s supply cuts and the likelihood that these are permanent. Prices should ease back in 2023 as Europe imports more LNG and demand falls, but we think they will …
24th August 2022
The latest figures suggest that Build to Rent (BTR) investment has continued to expand rapidly. Despite this trend, which predates COVID-19, the sector remains under-developed by international standards. But with plenty of opportunities for investors, we …
16th August 2022
Rents in the Dublin prime office market rose rapidly in H1 2022, supported by a continued recovery in occupier demand. However, a cooling jobs market and strong supply pipeline mean that a slowdown is likely in the second half of the year. Having started …
15th August 2022
Commercial property wasn’t initially hit by the worsening in economic conditions at the turn of the year, but there are now growing signs of anxiety. Not only that, but even if the economic gloom is short lived and any downturn is mild, we expect …
12th August 2022
EU funds will provide a key boost to economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the coming years as the region navigates a challenging macro environment and slowing global growth. Disputes with the European Commission over the rule of law in Hungary …
10th August 2022
Comparatively strong demand from flexible offices has helped the CEE occupier recovery from the pandemic. But a more limited flex pipeline this year means it is not likely to provide much offset to the weakening employment prospects in the region. A …
9th August 2022
While DM central banks are currently raising interest rates in earnest, the past week has brought signs that tightening cycles are now nearing an end in parts of the emerging world. Indeed, with interest rates now well above neutral in much of Emerging …
8th August 2022
While encouraging for the property risk premium, better transparency across Europe is unlikely to provide much support for property yields given the deterioration in the economic and interest rate environment. This is even the case for Emerging European …
2nd August 2022
As the cost-of-living crisis bites consumers will be forced to cut back on discretionary spending, with the leisure sector set to suffer as a result. At the same time, operators are facing shortages of labour and rising costs. We have therefore cut our …
After a strong start to the year, European investment weakened in Q2. And we expect only lacklustre activity over the second half of the year as rises in the cost of debt, tightening credit conditions and concerns about a recession in Europe weigh heavily …
29th July 2022
Household consumption has been weaker in Spain than in other big euro-zone economies, reflecting the slow rebound in tourism, more limited fiscal support and higher inflation. The latter is set to persist, while rising interest rates are a new headwind. …
28th July 2022
The decision by Gazprom to cut natural gas supplies to Europe to 20% of capacity has caused gas prices to surge and raised the risk of energy shortages during the winter. A full gas cut-off would result in self-inflicted pain for Russia. For the rest of …
27th July 2022
Bank lending growth accelerated further in June, but lenders expect the demand for loans to slow sharply in the coming months, adding to the reasons to expect the economy to fall into recession. Meanwhile, banks in the periphery are tightening the Ts and …
A rebound in tourism will cushion some of the blow to Spanish prime retail demand caused by falling real incomes this year. But once inflation eventually eases, we expect rent growth to outperform other European markets, supported by a rebound in consumer …
25th July 2022
Despite their recent rebound, we still think that “high-beta” developed market (DM) currencies will weaken further against the US dollar for the remainder of the year. DM currencies have risen against the greenback over the past week or so, reversing some …
22nd July 2022
The ECB’s 50bp rate hike today is likely to be the first move in a sustained interest rate hiking cycle which we think will bring the deposit rate to around 2% next year. We also think the Bank will at some point have to use its new asset purchase …
21st July 2022
Romania’s current account deficit is likely to rise to almost 9% of GDP this year. While a weaker currency would help to reduce this shortfall, structural reforms are needed to boost competitiveness in the long term. Until then, Romania’s deteriorating …
It looks like Italy is heading for an early general election. While that won’t necessarily cause an economic and financial crisis, bond spreads are likely to widen regardless of what the ECB announces later today. After the Lega, Five Star Movement and …
The Q2 ECB bank lending survey showed a tightening in credit standards for commercial property lending in the first half of the year, with expectations for a further squeeze in H2. With the cost of debt also higher, more restrictive credit will weigh on …
20th July 2022
Europe’s heightened demand for LNG will be enough to keep prices high this year and into 2023, particularly as LNG supply growth will be fairly limited . The Asia-based spot price for LNG, together with its European counterpart (TTF), soared in the wake …
18th July 2022
Despite the Q1 surge in investment activity, we think a weak rental outlook and stretched valuations will deter a sustained increase in investment, limiting the scope for further falls in prime industrial yields. There was strong investor demand for prime …
If the return of political instability in Italy leads to an early election, government bond spreads are likely to widen, whether or not the ECB agrees the details of the Transmission Protection Mechanism next week. The Five Star Movement has abstained …
14th July 2022
Structural changes to how we live, work and shop have supported retail warehouse rents over the last couple of years relative to other retail sub-sectors. We expect this outperformance will continue, although even here rental growth will slow as consumer …
13th July 2022
We doubt the fall in the euro will lead to a material increase in overseas investment this year. Rather, we think investor demand will be underpinned by the euro-zone’s economic and property fundamentals, for which the outlook has weakened sharply. The …
The euro hit parity against the US dollar today and we wouldn’t be surprised if it falls further. While we think it would take big moves in the trade-weighted exchange rate for the ECB to intervene in FX markets, at the margin the euro’s fall adds to the …
12th July 2022
The slowdown in the Swedish housing market has the potential to delay the recovery in the retail sector this year, as it weighs on retail sales and makes conversions to residential even less viable. This would add to what is already a weak outlook for the …
Capital outflows from EMs picked up over the past month and are likely to persist over the rest of the year. That’s a particular threat to those EMs whose current account deficits have widened or are widening sharply, including Turkey, Chile and parts of …
While the largest increases in corporate spreads in the US and the euro-zone may now be behind us, we suspect that a challenging economic backdrop will keep spreads elevated in both places for some time . The option-adjusted spreads (OAS) of ICE BofA ML’s …
8th July 2022
The rise in interest rates and bond yields has put property yields back under the microscope. Property valuations are now stretched and a traditional fair value analysis points toward a rise in property yields, which aligns with our view of a 40bps rise …
We suspect that the latest political turmoil in the UK adds to the reasons to expect a renewed rise in the 10-year Gilt yield, weakness in the pound, and continued trouble for the FTSE 100. The market reaction to the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime …
7th July 2022
