Archive for the ‘Commercial Real Estate’ Category

With seemingly relentless doom and gloom infiltrating all reports on Commercial Real Estate recently, there was at last some ‘official’ suggestions of a modest recovery on the horizon.

In a recent speech Dennis P. Lockhart, Chief Executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, gave hope to the signs of a modest recovery, albeit a slow and measured one. He predicted that the recovery will be slower than in recent recessions, with more time needed in this current climate due to the disarray of the banking structure, and the housing market’s difficulties.

Buyers on the Sidelines

There are still too many houses for sale in the U.S., with not enough buyers and credit still tight. The majority of Amercians are still in no mood to spend until they feel confident the markets have ‘bottomed out’.

Lockhart, a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates in the U.S. emphasised that the economy was undergoing radical changes, and the economy would take time to develop accordingly. The banking system, which has been decimated by the credit crunch (and no doubt started the fiscal nightmare we have witnessed) is still undergoing massive changes and remains fraught with uncertainty.

A New Banking Industry

We are still to witness over the next 2 or 3 years how the industry will emerge from the fiscal battle now being waged, and who the survivors will be. Contrary to what may be believed after reading media reports, many banks are still in deep financial trouble, and are struggling for survival.

Lockhart said that the U.S. economy has to start afresh, and not be based on a consumer fueled by debt and excessive leverage. Listeners at the meeting were quietly reassured by Lockhart’s sentiments, and many feel that the housing market has turned a corner, and in turn will fuel a recovery in the Commercial Property market.

Bottoming Out

Many Real Estate agents are reporting a renewed interest in the market over the last 2 months. Once consumers have confidence that the market has bottomed out, the pent up demand for property shall return. There is a huge amount of investors on the sidelines waiting for the first glimmers of an upturn, and to start buying Commercial Property sites.

Many real estate watchers have noticed that the alarming fall in commercial property prices has now ceased, ending in the first quarter. The recovery will be gradual, with many seeing signs now of stabilistaion in the market.

Crucial 12 Months

Over the coarse of the next 12 months, there will be opportunities in abundance of owners selling off prime property sites, as they face difficulties acquiring refinancing loans, and are forced to sell sites to stay afloat.

Banks need to make more loans and finance available to businesses large and small who have weathered the economic downturn, to help finance expansion and create more jobs.

To see what Commercial Property is available for purchase or lease, Click Here.

In a recent survey of the world’s largest global real estate investors, Australia, Japan and China have come top of the list for property investors. Although Australia has in recent years maintained a low profile in terms of property investment from overseas, the low australian dollar and stable property prices have pushed the country further into the property spotlight.

Stable Prices

The last few months has witnessed more and more investors from asia flying over to Australia and purchasing prime real estate, in Sydney and Melbourne. This was not the case 12 months ago, but as the property market globally has fallen in value, Australia has become more and more desireable.

The Australian property market hasn’t suffered the same dismal fate as europe and the U.S - prices have remained stable, and in many cases continued it’s gentle rise upwards. Commercial property in Sydney and Melbourne is now witness a rebirth, and many commentators are suggesting that whatever ‘bottoming out’ of the market there may have been, has long gone. We are also receiving reports regularly that Perth property continues to represent excellent value, and that the property market in the western state remains buoyant.

Movement into Developed Economies

Only recently have investors moved back into developed markets, moving from where they have been entranched in developing markets for the the last 12 months. Investors are now looking for profits from core assets in devloped economies, as thay see that the tide may have turned for many developed regions.

Upturn

Australia and Japan are currently heading the list of most desirable countries to invest, a survery from Asian Real Estate Association reports. Many respondents in the survey agreed with what is now becoming the rapidly the market’s overview: that the market will begin it’s recovery towards the end of the year. Many investors will not be waiting for the upturn to come.

To view commercial property in your city, Click Here. To view residential sales, Click Here.

Are you considering buying some commercial real estate from your business? Does your business currently occupy retail or office space? Perhaps you’re thinking of expanding - maybe it’s time to stop paying rent and start investing. What questions should you be asking yourself if your thinking of buying some commercial real estate?

It may be to your advantage to consider buying some commercial space for yourself. It’s a great time to be looking to buy commercial property for your business, with prices currently the lowest they’ve been in years. Here are some questions you can be asking yourself to help decide whether buying some new office or retail space is right for you and your business.

Deposits and Downpayment

Most commercial real estate currently requires a downpayment of around 20%. Do you have enough funds to pay out for a deposit?

Mortgage Payments

Do some research and find out how much mortgage repayments would be on an ideal property for your business. Check out the listings here for commercial property, and check with a lender roughly how much this would cost. Will the business comfortably cover the overhead? You don’t want to create cash-flow issues.

Tax Benefits

You can of course use part of the cost of the new property as tax deductable, and help reduce your tax bill. You can write off a portion each year of the building’s cost to depreciation. You could also buy the property yourself, and rent it back to the company. Talk to a good tax lawyer about the potential benefits.

Create Your Own Identity

If your currently renting, chances are that your offices look pretty much the same as everyone else’s - including your competition. Maybe it’s time to create something unique to your own brand, something your customers will remember. Buying your own property will give you a license to build a better brand.

What’s On the Market?

Do some research and have a look to see what’s out there. Is there somewhere near you that looks good? Fixing up and decorating a new place will add to the cost, so you’ll need to plan for the expenses. You’ll need to let your customers know where your going, and market for new ones too. Carefully compare properties on the market, and remember that you can always negotiate. Seldom are prices advertised non-negotiable.

Expanding?

Have a look at your current office or retail space. What are your plans for the future? Are you predicting major growth over the next few years? Do you have space right now to expand? How much space will you need in a few years? Is there space in your current retail or office environment to re-assign and create more space? Perhaps you don’t need to move. If you are expecting to grow - make sure you buy a place with lots of room for expansion - you don’t want to move again in two year time!

A Good Investment?

When buying commercial real estate, keep in mind some of the fundamentals you would consider when buying residential real estate. You don’t want to be buying anywhere, just because the price is great and it’s a good size. Ask yourself: Is it in a good neighbourhood? Is this town going places? You can try and imagine how the neighbourhood will be in a few years. Will there be more companies moving here? What will it be worth in 5 years? Is the building of good quality? Does it have heritage? If you move on, will you be able to rent it out if you need to?

Are You Ready to Own Commercial Property?

As with buying residential property, buying commercial real estate comes with it’s own responsibilites. You may need to rent out some of the space you buy to cover the rent. Perhaps you will initially need some cash back to fill the extra space you have. Renting space means you will have some landlord tasks. Collecting rent and fixing problems. Maybe you should consider getting a property manager in to help with those responsibilities, and you can focus on what you do best - running your business.

You can do some research on your current market now, by clicking here and typing in the name of your area in the search box.

Over the last few years, the commercial property market in the U.S. has struggled under the weight of businesses downsizing and reorgnising.

Jobs being exported to China and India has also taken its toll, and seen mass emmigration of  U.S. jobs overseas. This was all in motion before the current recession appeared in full force. So what was an unnerving trend in the U.S. is now becoming a reality: there is a large imbalance in the market - too much space for too few customers.

By the end of the first quarter of 2009, U.S. office space vacancy had climbed to 15%.

A Tennants Market

Moreover, since commercial real estate tends to be a lagging indicator, even if the economy starts to grow again later this year–something of a tall assumption–office landlords might not feel the benefit for quite a while longer than that. Now we have a ‘tennants market’, where financially sound tennants are in a great position to negotiate rental values, as there is so much office space to choose from. Rents are also down 3% from last year, and landlords are having to compete fiercely on rents.

In previous years, landlords would always check if the tennants credentials were good, and were financially reliable. That still holds, but now there’s another consideration: is the landlord financially secure? In the current climate, tennants need to make sure if they commit to move into new office space, that the landlord is reliable too. Landlords had intially resisted lower rents as this affects the valuation of the property, but the tide could only be resisted for so long. Rents for commercial property are now at the lowest point in the last 5 years.

The good news? If your looking to lease or buy Commercial Property, there has never been a better time to be looking.
Click here to view the latest Commercial Property in your area.

Rumours continue this week that the Commercial Property market in the U.K. is beginning to make a return to form, after positive figures continue to appear in the market.

More an investors are continuing to move into the devastated U.K. Commercial Property market, as many feel now is the time to be re-entering the sector, with prices many think has now hit the ‘bottom’. With prices now at 70% less than they were at their peak in 2007, many feel that prices simply can’t drop any lower. There was a more extreme drop in activity in the U.K than the U.S., and many feel that there will be a more rapid correction.

Commercial Property Bottoms Out?

Whilst the U.K. remains in a very deep recession, with unemployment rising, the devaluation of the pound over the last 6 months has encouraged foreign investors to enter back into the british commercial property market. The U.K. has also seen a slight upturn in the residential property market too, adding to fuel that the U.K. property market may be through the worst. With the U.K housing prices dropping so quickly, many are expecting this to be the bottom of the market now. As so many commentators note: ‘When you realise the bottom has arrived, you’ve missed it.’

Commercial Valuations

Researchers estimate that the U.K market is around 6 months ahead of the U.S, as it employs more transaprency in valuations, and uses more funding from commercial bank loans. Whilst many investors are now entering the market, some remain skeptical, and are predicting a turnaround in the middle of 2010. Many feel now as sense of reality has crept into the commercial property market in the U.K. Valuations are now more in line with what is seen as affordable after the boom of the last 5 years, when commercial and residential properties were out of reach for most regular investors.

To look at recent Commercial Property Prices in Your Area, Click here: http://www.sell-my-house-quick.com/search/index/type/commercial

Commercial real estate loans of $1.6 billion in Birmingham U.S is due to mature over the next three years, with many experts noting that rentals and values continuing to struggle,  many are expecting troubles for lenders and borrowers alike.

Recent reports are suggesting that there is further trouble ahead for the embattled commercial real estate market. With unemployment on the rise and empty retail spaces filling up the malls, landlords are assuming the worst for rental values.

Distressed Commercial Properties

There is now a large discrepencey between what the owners originally had their properties valued at during the boom years, and the deposits they paid, and the currrent value after the crash - similar to the developments in the global property market. Commercial properties are expected to be the next wave of distressed sales and foreclosures in the near future - with many commercial real estate companies already gone bust or in trouble, in the U.S and the U.K. So far it seems, Australia is remaining relatively robust, and confident about its future - perhaps with its simbiotic ties to japan and China helping things staying afloat.

Lenders remain flexible to deadlines and repayments in an effort not to add to the already grim situation, and are offering extensions to borrowers who are struggling with repayments - better get paid later, than not at all - in the hope the ‘green shoots of recovery’ turn out to be more than media hyperbole.

The Increase of Commercial Loans

Commercial loans on commercial real estate and mulit-family home are estimated to be around $1.6 billion in the birmingham area, and around $5.8 billion in nearby alabama, between 2009 and 2010. The real picture is more ominous though, as these fgures only account for 50% of actual loans - the other 50% is made by other loan making institutions, making the real situation more difficult to track. The commercial and multifamily mortgage figures enjoyed a staggering increase from 2006 - 2007, doubling over the space of a year – with an incredible $1.8 trillion addded to the loans total in the area. Fine when real estate prices are rising every year, but when the bubble bursts, the domino effect comes into play, and when one borrower defaults, then another, the real problems start. many commentators in the media are expecting this area to be the next arena of real estate to take a massive hit over the coming months, with several large commercial lenders on the ropes. As financing remain tight and levels of credit dropping off, there could be more ditress out there for commercial real estate.

Banks are currently offering 1 year extensions to their loans in an attempt to stave off the sunami of real estate defaults, in the hope that the market will turn around in the next 12 months, but many feel that this is delaying the inevitable, and only increasing the bubble’s magnitude, and making 2010 a real time bomb. The loans extensions are of coarse problematic in more ways than one: the longer the loans are extended for, the longer they tie up banking cash for other projects, further delaying any kind of fresh injection of capital to a struggling commercial market. Retail and office space values have eroded qiuckly in a short space of time, and lenders are getting nervous. The financial industry has been urging lenders to exaime the figures and stats now, to avoid further pitfalls and gain information to avoid the problematic bubble which seems to be getting larger.

The Search for Commercial Real Estate

Before mortgages mature, lenders need to be honest and upfront about their vision of the coming months. Lenders of real estate loans don’t appear to have any answers to the incoming tirade of defaults and distresses sellers that are coming to fruition over the next 12 months. Perhaps the green shoots of recovery will turn out to be the great turning point many hope? To look at commercial real estate and catch up on the current real estate market in your town, visit our commercial real estate page: http://www.sell-my-house-quick.com/search/index/type/commercial

After a tough year for the property ultra-rich in Australia, there are tentative signs that they may be slowly coming out of there well protected shells.

Commercial property is the place where they’ll be hunting.  Recent studies in Australia are revealing where high net worth individuals will be targeting over the next 12 months. Recent surveys reveal that over 50% of respondents are planning on investing in equities over the next 12 months. They are also being drawn to stability, which leads us onto commercial property. Whilst the wealthy remain hesitant on entering the market, the ultra rich are gleefully racing around the country picking up bargains. Discounts are there to be had, if you know where to look, and have the right knowledge base:

• In January the Tieck family bought a Syndey CBD office block for $83 milion - a 10 % discount
• The Laidlaw family, in March, spent a wopping $75 million for an office building in Geelong
• Andrew Roberts emerged as the main bidder for a $70 million deal in Sydney
• The Roth family, in April, paid $65 million for a 50% share in an office building in Melbourne
• Phil Wolanski stumped up $40 million for an office space in Syndey
• In May, Andrew Roberts bought $123 million for another office in Canberra, at a $17 million discount

What’s driving these investors back into the market? The great prices they can buy for. Many of these investors sold out during the highs of 2006 and 2007, and are now buying back in at extrordinary prices.

Overseas Buyers

While many property developers have desparately tried to hang onto their assests through the downturn, many are having to sell, at reduced prices. In turn they are havign to limit their asking prices, as only a select few are willing to buy back into what many see as a still volatile market. It’s mainly wealthy investors who are buying up. There has also been an increase in buyers coming from Hong Kong and China, many of whom have appeared better placed than many to take advantage of the global economic downturn. Melbourne and Syndey have proven favourites for offshore investors. Property sydicates are also buying up commercial properties. Instead of buying a property outright, many are pulling together to create better levarage.They are looking for ‘good fundementals’ - great natural light, city centre locations, easily split up into managable units, car park spaces and inticing retail lots - essentially, commercial real estate that will weather economic storms.

The Australian economic fundamentals remain good, and are encouraging investors to regain confidence in what they see as a good time to invest. The increase of the ultra-rich back into the market has given hope to many that the Australian market will remain resillient and a market upturn is not too far away - with some predicting small but steady growth this year, increasing in 2010. Some investors remain reluctant though, with one investor recently commentating that he expects commercial property prices to fall “another 20%” before the end of the year. There remains heated debate about the future of the market over the next 12 months….stay tuned.

For more info on Australian Commercial Property, search our list on our databse: http://www.sell-my-house-quick.com/search/index/type/commercial