What we’re expecting to hear at UKREiiF 2026

The commercial property market is in an interesting place heading into the show. Confidence is returning, but it’s uneven. Capital is moving, but carefully. Planning reform is creating pressure in both directions at once, writes Andrew Parker of BTG Eddisons Property Auctions

We’ll be in Leeds across all three days with colleagues from our agency, valuation, building consultancy and property management teams. Here’s what we’re expecting the big conversations to be, and what they mean from a disposal perspective.

Investors are back, but they’re being selective

There’s genuine appetite in the market, and we expect the investment sessions at UKREiiF to reflect that. But this isn’t a moment where everything sells. Investors are making more deliberate choices about sector, location and asset quality than they were two or three years ago.

In practice, that means a widening gap between assets that have a clear story and those that don’t. A credible occupier demand, a clean planning position, a location with some momentum: those assets are attracting real competition. The ones without that clarity are sitting longer or repricing. It’s not a difficult market, but it isn’t a forgiving one either.

Planning reform is going to dominate the conversation

Planning reform has generated more debate in the programme than almost any other topic, which tells you where the anxiety is. Everyone is trying to work out what the changes mean for their site or their investment thesis, and most people don’t have a clear answer yet.

What we’re seeing on the disposal side is that uncertainty is making vendors cautious. Some are moving early to get ahead of any value impact. Others are holding back, hoping that reform improves the prospects of their site. The advice from our agency and valuation teams is consistent: get a proper read on planning position before committing to a route to market, because it has become one of the most significant factors in both timing and pricing decisions right now.

The North West is in good shape, and it’s not alone

We cover the whole country, but the North West is a region where we’re watching the investment climate closely. The regeneration ambition around Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region is substantial, and the Northern Growth Corridor narrative connecting those cities with Leeds and Sheffield is starting to feel like a real investment proposition rather than a conference talking point.

Similar things are happening elsewhere. Parts of Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the South West are all seeing renewed disposal activity off the back of regeneration investment. Our building consultancy and property management colleagues are hearing the same from clients across those regions: more owners are asking whether now is the time to act on an asset they’ve been sitting on.

The current market conditions suit auction disposal well. When pricing expectations are resetting and vendors need certainty of outcome, auction provides something that a prolonged private treaty process often can’t: a defined timeline, a transparent process and a result.

BTG Eddisons Property Auctions brings together the teams and track records of Pugh, SDL Auctions, Mark Jenkinson and Network Auctions under one national operation. That breadth matters. It means a combined buyer database that crosses regional boundaries, a programme of regular sales covering commercial, residential and mixed-use assets, and specialist knowledge across the sectors and geographies where disposal activity is most active right now.

The strength of that combined platform is something we expect to be putting to work in the months ahead. The conversations at UKREiiF, around investment appetite, planning reform and regional regeneration, will give us a clearer picture of where the market is heading. But from what we’re already seeing, the pipeline of assets coming to auction is building.

If you’re heading to Leeds and want to talk through a disposal, a valuation or anything else going on with an asset, come and find us.

• Andrew Parker is a partner at BTG Eddisons Property Auctions