Mike Slade and Tony Gibbon on property
Is the City finished?
Tony Gibbon: I think we are hugely more considered, massively better researched and more lateral in our thinking. BH2 is our business and so we are under no pressure to conclude transactions.
What about Europe as a competitor?
Gibbon: It was obvious that by the end of 2006 there was going to be too much space being built. In that context, I think the credit crunch came at the right time because it turned off the supply tap.
Today, it is unquestionably the financial capital of the world and it is important to remember that the City is about far more than just banking.
How do you see the market?
Mike Slade: I’ll turn back to the early 1990s and talk about what is different between now and then. Funds were buying in the early 1990s, this time they are not. Banks were still lending, now they aren’t.
What we did have then and what we are going to start seeing now are five-year leases or 10-year leases with five-year breaks with the first three years’ rent free. The answer is to not be overgeared when you go into a market like this, and that is easy to say now. Next time round, you will remember that, when everyone is saying ‘it can’t get higher’, it can’t get bloody higher.
These are extracts from an interview which took place at the Young Norwood Property event ‘Buy or Hell?’, a reception held by Young Norwood Property at New Cavendish Conference Centre in London on 24 March 2009.
Read the original article published in Property Week at Mike Slade and Tony Gibbon give advice to young property professionals.