Real Estate Sentiment Keeps Improving, but Omicron Still Poses Risks

Tarrant Parsons, Economist, RICS. Image courtesy of RICS

In the final three months of 2021, sentiment among real estate professionals around the globe continued to improve for the sixth consecutive quarter.

The recovery is most pronounced in the Americas—with the U.S. seeing the sharpest acceleration in demand growth from both occupiers and investors since the first quarter of 2016—followed by the Middle East and Africa, and Europe. Asia Pacific is the only region that stands out as lagging the rest of the world.

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The latest Global Commercial Property Monitor published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London also points out the significant shakeup across the office sector. Almost one-third of the respondents across the globe no longer view office space as being essential for a company to operate successfully, while four fifths of those contributing to the survey noticed a rise in demand for flexible and more local workspaces.

Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay.com

Toward the end of this episode of our quarterly RICS podcast series, Economist Tarrant Parsons also talks to Commercial Property Executive Senior Editor Laura Calugar about concerns around the spread of the latest COVID-19 variant, inflation and the potential economic impact of a military intervention in Ukraine.

Here are the main topics Parsons covered with CPE:

• Sentiment indicators among occupiers and investors (0:46)
• Changes in the office sector (3:22)
• Capital and rental values (5:53)
• Reasons of concern (7:27)
• Q4 survey results for North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Europe (9:10)
• The situation in Ukraine and its potential impact on CRE (14:55)
• Expectations for the first quarter of 2022 (16:20)

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