Decline in Office Property Sale across the Globe in the First few months of 2016

Drastic slowdown in the office property sale volumes! Yes, according to the latest reports from a renowned property management firm, all the regions across the globe are witnessing a slowdown in the office property sale volumes when compared to the same period previous year (2015). The report shows that the speed of decline has accelerated since the last quarter of 2015. The overall activity across the globe in the first three months of 2016 is totalled up to US$133 billion, which is about 14% lower when compared to the activity in the year 2015. It’s also termed to be the weakest start for the year since 2013.

Detailed Report Analysis

• It’s seen in the report that the regional volumes in America are down by 16% (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2016. The sale volumes in Canada were almost flat but in Latin America, it was considerably weak (just US$220 million).
• Same is the case of Europe; it’s being greatly affected by politics. The report makes it clear that the European volumes have dropped by 15% in the first quarter (US$48 billion).
• In Asia Pacific, it was 5% lower when compared to the activity 12 months ago (US$24 billion), whereas in China, Australia and Hong Kong, the activity was higher than the previous year.
• South Korea had a bounce back when compared to the first quarter of 2015, but Singapore witnessed one of its weakest quarters recording just US$700 million.

This makes it clear that the emerging markets in most of the regions have witnessed lower sale volumes. The volatility levels and the risk aversion seen in the first few weeks of 2016 have made the results of the first quarter look weak. However the recovery has been quite rapid and the equity markets are back to the levels of November 2015 while the credit spreads have narrowed again.

However, most of the major office markets have remained stable when it comes to yield. But what’s to be worried about is the direction of travel is still downwards. The yield across 21 prime office space markets is compressed to 4.8%.  Europe has also registered the compression of yield in most of the markets including Stockholm, Madrid, Brussels and Milan.

The capital value appreciation on major assets across 26 markets has held broadly steady at around 8.7% year on year. The reports have shown particularly strong capital appreciation over the past 12 months in Stockholm, Sydney, Dubai, Tokyo and Los Angeles.

This being the current state of commercial office space market, many commercial real estate experts still opine that the year is going the perform well in the coming quarters, as lots of office spaces are under construction, and are expected to be completed soon, which definitely adds up to the office property sale volume.