Office yields in Brussels may move out in the coming year, but the market is unlikely to see many signs of forced selling given that it less highly leveraged than London, property adviser Savills warns in a new report. The high level of yields being seen in London will also fail to materialise, the adviser predicts.
Office yields in Brussels may move out in the coming year, but the market is unlikely to see many signs of forced selling given that it less highly leveraged than London, property adviser Savills warns in a new report. The high level of yields being seen in London will also fail to materialise, the adviser predicts.
Although the investment market is slowing down dramatically, Belgium is also less affected by the global economic crisis than its neighbours, the adviser said. The country is set to see negative GDP of -2.4% this year, slightly less than the European average of -2.6%. Despite a growth forecast of 0.8% for 2010 compared to a European average of 0.6%, the economy will shrink due to a lack of fiscal stimulus. In terms of office investments, domestic buyers accounted for 96% of deals in Q1 2009, with 19 closed at an average of EUR 17 mln per lot size compared to EUR 45 mln in Q108.
'Deals in Belgium are down 60% and in Brussels 95% when compared to the same time period last year, with only 4% purchased by foreign buyers,' Sheelam Chadha, head of research for Savills Belgium, said. 'In reality we do not expect to see an influx of properties to the market through forced sales and so until buyers and sellers agree on pricing we are set to see a stagnant market.'
