Eurozone QE ‘will benefit investment here’
The quantitative easing announcement for the Eurozone of €1.1 trillion over the next 18 months or for as long as it takes for inflation to reach its 2% target, can only have a positive effect on the North West investment market, says Ben Roberts, head of Cushman & Wakefield in Manchester.
Roberts said: "As a house we are predicting that prime yields will harden by between 0.4% and 0.7% and the secondary markets will see a larger yield improvement. Investment volumes which reached £56bn last year are forecast to increase by 20%. The top end of the yield compression range is likely to be experienced in the London and South East markets but the Northern markets will see yield compression."
Roberts, investment partner at C&W, added: "The impact on the North West market can only be positive and after £840m was transacted in the Manchester city centre office market, dominated by the RBS Spinningfields buildings and City Tower, which accounted for £452m, we foresee a very buoyant market this year but it will be difficult to see the 2014 volume being exceeded.
"We will see yield compression across all commercial sectors which will benefit developers and there will be further speculative development across other sectors and not just orientated to the Manchester city centre office market. In particular the industrial sector will be a major benefactor as the supply of prime space in both smaller and larger units is more or less non-existent."
