Internet update

Citation

Almond, N. (2007), "Internet update", Property Management, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2007.11325dag.001

Internet update

The last few years has seen significant growth in the globalisation of real estate markets. In 2006 we saw a record $682 bn of direct real estate investment, nearly double the $354 bn recorded in 2003, according to figures released by Jones Lang LaSalle. Within this, growth in cross-border transactions continues to outpace total transaction growth as investors seek to diversify their portfolios. This growth is evident to all who read the money pages of the weekend press. Whereas not so long ago there may have been a couple of advertisements for domestic property funds, today the retail investor can access European and International funds as well.

It is not just investors who are in the global market. Occupiers for a long time have been broadening their horizons. Office CBDs are awash with global brands, the high street is too, even in the regional cities of the UK. With it comes the need for greater information on markets.

Traditional players in the industry, like Jones Lang LaSalle (www.joneslanglasalle.co.uk), CBRE (www.cbre.com), Cushman and Wakefield (www.cushwake.com) and DTZ (www.dtz.com) all provide a range of publications on individual markets, as well as regional or global pieces of research. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Global Transparency Index, being one such publication of great interest to parties wishing to understand and access markets across the globe. This publication highlights amongst other issues the importance of accurate market information, including time-series data and the availability of benchmarks; all of which have a direct influence on the level of investment market activity.

The UK of course ranks highly in terms of its transparency, reflecting in part the availability of information, data and so forth making access into the market easy. In previous editorials I have covered a range of information providers with coverage of the UK market. Some of these continue to focus their attention on the UK, others are, and have for a while, been covering markets outside of the UK, including Europe and further a field.

Investment Property Databank (IPD) (www.ipdglobal.com) have for sometime been producing indices for a number of countries globally, their homepage today provides returns for no less than twenty countries including the UK, and the list continues to expand each year. No less than six of these countries are outside of Europe. IPD have recently launched a Pan-European and now details of a Global index, which in time will provide the basis of a benchmarking tool for investors seeking to invest internationally.

Property Market Analysis (PMA) (www.property-m-a.co.uk) another UK provider is also broadening its horizons. PMA has for sometime provided a European service including a forecasting service of rents and returns for a range of European sectors and markets, with coverage of over 30 different cities or regions in Continental Europe. In addition they provide coverage of shopping centres at the national level for fifteen European countries in addition to the UK. PMA also link in with Bulwien (www.bulwien.de) a German research organisation. According to PMA’s website, they are now broadening their horizons with coverage of the United States (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC) and Asia (Beijing, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo). Further services on the retail side on a global level are also planned.

Its not just European players who are active in this market. There are now a number of USA-based companies who are now expanding their operations. Property and Portfolio Research (PPR) (www.ppr.info), is one such company who are now expanding into Europe. PPR is an independent company, which according to their material seeks to help clients by applying “cutting-edge market research, analytics, and strategic thinking to stay ahead of market trends and maximise risk-adjusted returns”. Having provided a comprehensive research service in the USA for many years, PPR is now moving into Europe with coverage of the office, retail and warehousing markets. By the end of 2007, it should have coverage of over thirty office markets in Europe. For each market PPR has short reports (sample copies available to download from the website), together with a comprehensive forecasting service including rents, returns, yields and a range of other demand/supply-side variables. It also provides more bespoke services for clients.

Another USA provider, Real Capital Analytics (RCA) (www.rcanalytics.com) provides a range of subscriber based services on the office, retail, warehousing and apartment sectors across the USA. Their services include a searchable database of transactional information. They also produce a monthly report on capital markets trends for a range of cities or states. Coverage includes details on the debt market, transaction volumes and cap rates. Analysis of the apartment sector includes data on sales rates, analysis of buyers and sellers and pricing by types of dwelling. While their current focus remains the USA, it will only be time before they broaden their horizons to markets outside the USA. As with other players in the industry, RCA have strategic alliances with a number of suppliers, including for example PPR and Torto Wheaton Research (www.twr.com) (a subsidiary of CB Richard Ellis).

To highlight the growing globalisation of the market, another USA based research provider is Co-Star (www.costar.com), who own the UK company Property Intelligence (owners of the Focus service in the UK). Co-Star offer a similar styled operation in the USA providing a comprehensive database of space available to lease and a comparables database of completed transactions for the USA commercial real estate market. That said a review of their offer in the USA shows a significant level of resourcing into the capture of data and highlights the increasing use of sophisticated technology to deliver services. They also offer an online market place for buying and selling USA properties (CoStar Exchange). Their recent acquisition of PropEx (www.propex.co.uk) in the UK will bolster their offer in this area.

The globalisation of markets is having a clear impact on information service provision, with an increasing number of providers seeking to sell their services to consultants and investors alike. This editorial has sought to highlight some of the trends and changes that is happening in the marketplace and the types of service on offer, most of which are subscriber based and therefore not possible to discuss in great detail within the confines of this page. Equally, there are numerous other providers who have been left out in what is a large and growing industry, the financial information providers such as Bloomberg, Thomson Financial and Reuters are all seeking to expand their real estate services. But just as the financial information world is changing, with Thomson Financial seeking to acquire Reuters, so we can expect changes within our industry.

Acknowledgements

The views expressed are those of the author and not those of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Nigel AlmondAssociate Director, Jones Lang LaSalle