AT LONG last there seems to be a chink of light for the economy and the property market in particular.
The latest updated GDP figure for the UK showed a 1.1% growth in the second quarter of 2010.
In addition, banks are starting to get more confident about lending to each other and to business, due to the inter bank LIBOR rate stabilising since the stress tests on European banks being published.
The construction sector seems to be seeing good growth but this may be a blip and public sector cuts could see this sector grow less quickly in the next few quarters.
The GDP good news needs to be balanced with the unemployment figures at 7.8%, with 1.48m people claiming jobseeker’s allowance and only 486,000 vacancies available.
The cuts in public spending will have a negative effect but at Priority Sites we have noticed a return of interest from private sector businesses, particularly smaller and new ones in wanting accommodation to expand or move to higher quality accommodation in good locations where skills and labour are available.
As a property company with developments throughout the country we are seeing a real pick up in interest in our offices and industrial units in the South West, North East and particularly in the North West and Merseyside.
We have offices available at Turnstone Business Park in Widnes and Dakota Business Park at Speke where there is increasing interest and commitment to purchase or lease.
We are also experiencing increasing demand for our industrial units at Vesty Business Park in Sefton, Brookfield Drive in Liverpool and Derwent Mills in Cockermouth.
We think this is due to a number of factors.
Firstly, confidence seems to be increasing in the smaller business sector and secondly, this is probably the best time to purchase a property with prices now so low and our willingness to be flexible and do sensible deals to clear our stock so that we can release funding to start new developments.
Our own confidence in the market has increased and we hope to start developing in Wirral in the third to fourth quarter of this year and in Liverpool and Widnes following closely behind.
