Viewpoint: Aintree winner ponders a punt on city commercial

Nov 7 2007 by Kevin Cockburn, Liverpool Daily Post

RAYMOND MOULD knows a thing or two about gambling and risk on Merseyside. Mr Mould is the horse-racing fanatic who happened to own Bindaree when it won the Grand National in 2002.

Away from the delirium of Aintree, Mr Mould is a seasoned property market entrepreneur. And if his latest moves are to be believed, Merseyside commercial property specialists should be racing to his door.

This month it has emerged that Mr Mould, together with fellow property market investors Patrick Vaughan and Humphrey Price, are looking to raise a £200m war chest on the stock market.

London & Stamford Property has announced that it is planning a share placing and then a listing on AIM.

The group, led by the trio, has worked together since the 1980s on deals exploiting turns in the property market cycle.

This latest project echoes their feeling that the UK commercial property market “appears on the threshold of a correction in values” and “will offer excellent opportunities”, according to Mr Mould. They plan to invest proceeds from the listing in real estate investments “principally in the UK and to a limited extent overseas”.

This really is good news for the industry and should snap other investors out of any credit crunch induced inertia.

It is worth emphasising the attractions of Merseyside’s commercial property market. Valuation office statistics showed that in Liverpool, the value of industrial, office and retail property all quietly increased from 2005 to 2006.

And all the evidence points to an upward trend that is running steady rather than about to buck. Moreover, rental office space is an investment very much coming up on the rails in Liverpool.

The emerging threshold is £22 per square foot compared to the saturated Manchester market, which charges £25 plus. So the hot tip to investors is very much, place your bets now in Liverpool or miss the best odds.