Businesses hear the outlook for London’s Property Market in 2012

Early mornings are not for everyone but businesses who wanted to stay ahead of the game gathered at the first of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) exclusive Property and Construction Breakfast Club events to hear an economic overview of London’s property market.

A well-known commentator on the property market and visiting professor in the Department of Geography at Birkbeck, University of London, Dr Peter Damesick MA PhD, EMEA chief economist at CBRE, provided an economic context and outlook, discussed the market trends and outlined the outlook for office demand, development and rents in 2012 and beyond.

A full house of 80 industry professionals from within the chamber membership met to network with fellow key players to promote and generate business for their organisation and to keep up-to-date with trends and developments. Networking started over bacon rolls at CBRE’s new flagship West End offices, where the breakfast clubs are held this year.

Companies at the event included architect Cartwright Pickard Architects, building services engineer and contractor Gratte Brothers Group, civil and structural engineering consultancy Waldeck Associates and quantity surveyor the WT Partnership.

After breakfast and with pockets full of business cards, attendees moved into the seminar room to hear from Dr Peter Damesick. Whilst the message he delivered highlighted challenges with the market slowing, subdued short-term demand prospects, along with sparse new supply in the short term, there is a silver lining.

London seems to be holding up better than other regions and more development is in the pipeline for 2014- 2015. Forecast recovery is in demand, in addition to extended rental cycle in prospect.

Robert McNally, chairman of LCCI’s Property and Construction Group, who chaired the event, commented: “This was an excellent event hosted by CBRE in their superb new facilities. The keynote speech by Peter Damesick and the thought-provoking questions and debate that Peter’s presentation generated afterwards, amply demonstrated the variety of expertise and the depth of relevant experience of those LCCI members in the audience.

“Events such as these provide unequal networking opportunities for LCCI members to meet other businesses operating in the same space, and to discuss current issues and topics of interest at the highest level.”