It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Mark Richardson, partner at BB&J Commercial.
I expect 2022 to be much like 2021 in terms of activity. Demand for good quality commercial freeholds has been high, and I expect once again we will see competitive bidding where investments come to the market.
On several occasions when instructed to sell we have been to ‘best bids’ not only on investments but also on land where a scarcity of opportunities has pushed prices upwards.
I think business owners are looking to sit tight and ride out any remaining uncertainty, and as such I suspect that where freehold sales do come to the market then competition between potential purchasers will be even keener in 2022 than it has been this year.
We have seen some evidence of office uptake increasing a little, and this may accelerate as and when there is more long-term certainty over economic performance.
Surprisingly, demand for retail units has been reasonable, particularly for freehold units with potential for conversion of parts to residential. Hopefully this is a sign that there is gathering momentum behind a trend to repurpose our town and city centres.
On a related front there does not seem to be any waning of developers appetite to secure funding for new build schemes, and encouragingly no seeming shortage of lenders looking to provide finance.
This is only empirical evidence but based on our own activities and work this year it does give comfort that those who are willing to put their money on the line in terms of both borrowing and lending are feeling confident in what they are doing.
