{"id":8385,"date":"2019-08-06T15:52:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T14:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/?p=8385"},"modified":"2022-08-04T16:12:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:12:48","slug":"investment-industrial-figures-remain-strong-despite-brexit-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/investment-industrial-figures-remain-strong-despite-brexit-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment & Industrial Figures Remain Strong Despite Brexit Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"
Notwithstanding the uncertain political climate investment transactions so far this year have reached \u00a3101m, the Lisney Q2 2019 Northern Ireland Commercial Property Report has revealed.<\/p>\n
Quarter two performance was better than anticipated with a total of \u00a360m of commercial property investments transacted in Q2 compared to \u00a355m within the second quarter of 2018.<\/p>\n
Declan Flynn, Managing Director of Lisney Northern Ireland, which specialises in office, retail, leisure and industrial property acquisition, disposal and investment, commented:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to see healthy levels of local activity at smaller lot sizes with pricing remaining resilient. That said the appetite of external investors is undoubtedly hampered in the current climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is understandable as the capital markets reflect the risk associated with Brexit. The retail sector continues to be a major talking point as the sector remains in the midst of a correction, given how our volumes have been traditionally dominated by retail this is particularly pertinent for the NI commercial property market.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA drop in the office take-up figures assessed within Belfast\u2019s CBD for Q2 2019 is a reflection of the shortage of Grade A stock rather than a slackening of activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cActivity will continue to be a challenge for the market until new stock is built and comes online later in 2019 and early 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trend of Tech and Digital sector domination continues to be a real positive for the Belfast market and as revealed in new research released by the government\u2019s Digital Economy Council \u2013 Belfast is in the top four locations for high-paying digital jobs within the UK and with over 16,000 new posts created in the past 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQ2 saw yet another high profile casualty. Arcadia Group whose brands include the likes of; Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins hit the headlines as they announced CVA proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, as we observed with House Fraser\u2019s CVA, this was met with considerable opposition from some of the UK\u2019s leading landlords, before eventually gaining approval. In a similar suit, Monsoon Accessorize has proposed a CVA which like Arcadia\u2019s, has and continues to be subject to significant landlord scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a Northern Ireland level, Belfast City Centre continues to be amongst the headlines as it attempts to recover from the chaos caused by the Primark fire. With works to secure the Bank Buildings structure progressing the protective cordon has been scaled back, allowing the welcomed reopening of Zara and Tesco Metro.<\/p>\n
\u201cActivity within the industrial\/logistics sector in Quarter 2 was relatively quiet in the industrial market in terms of the number of deals transacting, however, the average size of each letting is considerably larger than in previous quarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Q2 Lisney transacted the largest letting of the year, so far, at 113,550 sqft in Ballygawley and this deal continued the theme of storage and distribution demand for high-quality units with dock levellers seen over the last 6+ months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisney\u2019s latest report on the Northern Ireland commercial property market can be viewed in full here:<\/p>\n