Filtered by Subscriptions: US Commercial Property Use setting US Commercial Property
Structural changes to working patterns and the resultant shifts in office demand will vary by industry and job type. Occupations like life and physical sciences are likely to see a low adoption of remote work, whereas IT sector jobs and those in financial …
13th April 2022
This Update forms part of a set of publications that extend our existing office and apartment market analysis beyond the six major metros. This month we will be publishing our new, expanded metro forecasts for the office and apartment sectors, which will …
3rd March 2022
The exceptionally strong rebound in commercial property returns has been clear from the middle of last year. While this came earlier than most expected, we think it reflected special conditions and won’t last. Despite increased uncertainty from the …
11th February 2022
We believe the link between real estate cashflows and inflation to be overplayed, a view that is backed up by the evidence of the last 44 years. But there are exceptions. One of which is low vacancy rates, which support strong NOI growth, as we expect in …
10th February 2022
We think that elevated oil prices will help office-based employment in Houston to recover further in the coming months, but the shift to remote working will limit the associated boost to office demand. Looking further ahead, declining oil prices and high …
3rd February 2022
After seeing strong gains over most of 2021, household formation stalled in the final quarter. A lack of homes for sale and rent, and the soaring cost of both tenures, is constraining household formation. To the extent that it is affordability that is …
Office incentives packages rose to unprecedented levels in 2021, which supports our view that market conditions are weaker than asking rents suggest. Given our expectation that vacancy will remain elevated in the coming years, incentives are likely to …
19th January 2022
Real estate potentially has a significant role to play in helping achieve ambitious climate targets. We have estimated the size of the risks in the transition to net zero for the commercial property markets that we cover. This risk varies widely across …
14th January 2022
Combining the change in leased space with the rise in sublease availability gives a more complete picture of the change in demand across office metros since the onset of the pandemic. This gives a more intuitive match between demand patterns and rental …
11th January 2022
The US economy is set to slow this year as elevated inflation and higher interest rates squeeze spending. Nevertheless, at the all-property level, we expect rental growth of around 3% y/y and NOI yields to see another large fall, driving double-digit …
6th January 2022
2021 proved a challenging year to forecast commercial property markets. Indeed, we underestimated the speed and size of the bounce back in performance, albeit by less than the consensus. But there are lessons to be learned from last year’s experience, so …
5th January 2022
The rapid bounce-back in the US economy along with still-loose monetary policy will drive continued strong performance in real estate in 2022, when we expect returns to exceed 12%. That would see the US outperform the UK and euro-zone by 5%-pts and 3%-pts …
15th December 2021
The pandemic turbo-charged a move away from major coastal cities, and that drop in demand led to a sharp fall in their rents relative to the national average. But with those moves now made and cities reopening, we doubt they will continue to get cheaper. …
9th December 2021
Against both our proprietary in-house valuations and a more traditional fair value analysis, real estate looks cheap despite recent yield falls. Indeed, our analysis suggests yields could fall by 30bps by end-2023 and still be fair value. But as this …
1st December 2021
Data show a vast divergence in performance across the industrial sector over the last year. While some of the strength is consistent with that in the apartment and office sectors, driven by migration to the South, others have been supported by …
23rd November 2021
Google mobility data show a much fuller recovery in visitors returning to retail and recreation than to the workplace. This supports our view that structural changes will weigh on the office sector more than retail over the next few years, helping to make …
19th November 2021
The faster-than-average recovery in financial sector employment in the Miami metro owes much to new office openings by banking and finance firms in the last 18 months. This has made Miami one of the best-performing office markets since the end of 2019 and …
8th November 2021
REIT pricing appears consistent with our view that retail values are nearing a turning point while office values have a bit further to fall. But a strong recovery in industrial and apartment REITs means that there is some upside risk to our capital value …
4th November 2021
Recent data releases and surveys show a booming commercial real estate market, particularly in the industrial and apartment sectors. While the level of prices is raising some eyebrows, we don’t see cause for concern yet. Nevertheless, we expect the rate …
2nd November 2021
Upgrades across the board in 2021, but increased sector divergence in 2022-23 Consensus forecasts for 2021 have been upgraded in all four major sectors on the back of strong investor demand. But tellingly the picture is more varied for 2022-23, where …
27th October 2021
National office data suggest that suburban office markets have significantly outperformed downtown offices since the onset of the pandemic. But metro-level data point to a more nuanced picture in which metros reliant on commuting have seen downtown areas …
18th October 2021
The retail sector appears to be turning a corner, and we think that convenience-oriented Neighbourhood and Community (N&C) centres, out-of-town retail, “destination”-type malls and retail located in “desirable” southern metros are likely to be the …
8th October 2021
In-migration to southern metros with relatively low living costs and high desirability will be positive for office demand in those same metros. We think firms will be encouraged to set up offices in those locations given the growth in their skilled labour …
4th October 2021
The Evergrande crisis has made waves in financial markets this week. But, while the developed property markets we cover may see some short-term upheaval, we think the impacts outside of China are unlikely to be severe or lasting. For property investors, …
23rd September 2021
Chicago’s office market will not escape the gloomy outlook caused by the shift to remote working. But we expect the low level of rents, the small share of jobs in the information sector, and a dwindling supply pipeline to limit rental declines over the …
17th September 2021
The most recent commercial property data have been surprisingly upbeat and have raised the possibility that the recovery could be stronger than expected. But we think investors may have run ahead of themselves and this trend is unlikely to be sustained …
16th September 2021
Apartments kept getting smaller in the second quarter of this year, with the median floor space of units falling to under 1,000 sq. ft., the lowest since records began in 1999. That trend seems at odds with rising demand for larger units to accommodate …
14th September 2021
Despite a higher construction pipeline for distribution warehouses, we think that a high share of pre-let space, coupled with strong demand, means vacancy will only be 20bps higher over the next few years as a result. In turn, we don’t expect it to have a …
27th August 2021
The eviction ban has been extended to early October, but we doubt it will be renewed again. Given the strength of the labour market, significant government support and robust rental demand, the resumption of evictions will not boost the rental vacancy …
19th August 2021
Surging demand for single-family homes has revived institutional investor interest in the single-family rental (SFR) market. With few homes available to buy, interest in build-for-rent (BFR) investment is growing. But given constraints in the home …
3rd August 2021
The recent gains in lender sentiment showed the real estate recovery is heading in the right direction. As lenders gain confidence, standards should start to loosen, and industrial and multifamily borrowers will continue to benefit. But uncertainty around …
26th July 2021
Our forecasts, which cover landlord-held space, point to San Francisco vacancy peaking in 2025 at over 24%. Broker data, which also incorporates sublease vacancy, suggests much of that adjustment has already taken place. But though there are early signs …
21st July 2021
We have pulled back our expectations for Treasury yield rises this year and, to a lesser extent, next year. At the margin, this is positive for real estate pricing as it means that the property to bond yield gap will stay wider for longer. However, with …
16th July 2021
There is mounting evidence that the exodus from cities is winding down. As economies reopen, we think that cities will come back to life, bringing a wave of new demand for high-rise apartments. But once the dust settles, the shift to working from home …
9th July 2021
The pandemic has accelerated growth in scientific research and development, prompting a boost to demand in key R&D clusters. While we don’t expect the current rates of growth to be sustained, we think the outperformance of this sector could persist for …
8th July 2021
The student accommodation sector faces high levels of uncertainty for the fall 2021 academic year. In our view, demand for student housing will rebound from last year, but fall short of its pre-pandemic peak. Overall, we expect vacancy to nudge higher and …
25th June 2021
The pandemic has heightened occupiers’ focus on the quality and green credentials of the space they occupy. This trend is set to impact on demand, with modern, well-configured buildings with green building certifications set to attract tenants at the …
23rd June 2021
Recent strong inflation data have heightened concerns about global price pressures. At present, we think there will be limited impact on short-term property performance. Further out though, higher inflation expectations reinforce the view that bond yields …
16th June 2021
With emission targets needing to be met by 2030, the race is on for the real estate sector to decarbonise. By forcing tenants and landlords to share the risks, benefits and costs of environmental policies, green commercial leases are a promising tool, and …
10th June 2021
Although office values have held up well in tech hubs such as Seattle and Austin, they have also seen some of the largest falls in occupier demand. Further substantial reductions in floorspace by tech companies will cause vacancy in these markets to rise …
1st June 2021
Industrial yields look likely to reach our end-2021 forecasts by mid-year, leading us to re-evaluate the outlook for pricing. Although gains in rents and capital values are driving increased development, we think investors’ willingness to pay for solid …
26th May 2021
Consensus more optimistic about industrial and apartments Consensus forecasts for the next two years have been revised upwards, largely driven by a more upbeat view on the industrial sector. As a result, we are now more downbeat than the survey …
19th May 2021
Increased demand for larger apartments to accommodate working from home is already evident in NYC, where the inventory of units with two or more bedrooms has seen a sharper decline compared to smaller units. With working from home set to stay even as …
14th May 2021
There currently appears to be little economic scope for conversions to residential across the six major office markets. But our forecasts of falling values and rising vacancy in the office sector suggest the incentive will increase, particularly in NYC …
7th May 2021
We expect a strong recovery in TV and film-related employment will support office demand in LA over the next five years. Alongside a relatively small development pipeline and low office rents, this means we expect vacancy rises and rental value falls in …
23rd April 2021
In our recent Office and Apartment Outlooks, we identified Washington D.C. as the top performer over a five-year forecast in both sectors. Those expectations are driven by several factors influencing both supply and demand, but none of these is more …
20th April 2021
The easing of virus restrictions and return to offices for many white-collar workers will mean that apartment markets in cities such as NYC and Washington D.C. will outperform this year. But we think the longer-term outlook is most favourable in Sunbelt …
15th April 2021
Property investment volumes held up better than we anticipated in 2020, and we are expecting 2021 to be a solid year for investment. We think that pent-up demand and the reopening of the economy will help transaction volumes reach over $500bn this year, …
14th April 2021
Thanks to changing consumption patterns and structural and cyclical knocks to the traditional property sectors, both occupier and investor demand for data centres set new records last year. But, while further strong growth is likely, we don’t expect these …
19th March 2021
Our analysis suggests that both higher asking rents and a greater proportion of information jobs have been associated with a larger rise in sublease vacancy in recent quarters. We think there are good reasons for this and expect these factors to be key to …
17th March 2021