The North East’s commercial property investment market appears to be showing promising signs for a strong third quarter, with national commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) concluding three deals across the region for a combined £14m in one week alone.
The second quarter finished strongly with the sale of a headquarters office building in Gateshead where LSH acted jointly alongside AHBN.
Following this, in a seven day period, contracts have been exchanged on three buildings at prices in excess of £8m, £2m and £3m.
The deals follow a relatively quiet Q2 for the region’s commercial property investment market, during which just £87m of assets were traded; down 30% on the previous quarter and 43% on the five-year quarterly average, according to the latest edition of LSH’s UK Investment Transactions (UKIT) report.
Bill Lynn, Director of Capital Markets at LSH’s Newcastle office who handled the transactions, commented: “Despite investment volumes falling back during Q2 2017, we are pleased to report that the third quarter has kicked off with a surge of activity.
“While it would be naïve to suggest that the uncertainty surrounding the snap General Election and the ongoing Brexit negotiations have subsided, these deals clearly reflect the underlying confidence and strong levels of demand for prime property investments. This strong competition has led to a severe shortage of investment stock to sell which bodes well for any assets coming onto the open market.”
