“The U.K. remains – the cork is still in the bottle. It didn’t go off last Friday [Election day]. Money is still sitting on the sidelines. I think it may start to come, but I don’t think we’d be calling that as like the last Friday doesn’t – is only the beginning, not the end. And there are other challenges in the U.K. market, so the U.K. is probably the area across the industry which is the most difficult at the moment.” JanusHenderson CFO
Rightmove report out for February on UK and London house prices.
“London’s recovery continues with new-year momentum pushing up prices and sales numbers, and finally encouraging more sellers to come to market … Better market encourages new sellers, with the 1.6% increase in the number of newly marketed properties being the first rise compared to the prior year for 16 months.”
December post-election RICS survey was rather positive.
JPM write via Alphaville – The RICS survey, which was post election, “showed a marked and regionally broad-based improvement in its forward looking questions,” says JP Morgan Cazenove. “The expected prices balance leapt from 1 to 23, expected sales shot up from 13 to 31 and new buyer enquiries surged from -5 to 17. These are comfortably the highest levels reported since before the referendum and, in one reading, have swung from below to above their long-run averages.”
The UK is looking very weak on the eve of Brexit, inventory re-stocking boost has run out
IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI Release hit 47.4 in August – the lowest level since 2012 (https://tinyurl.com/y5qrhe75)
“The high levels of economic and political uncertainty pervasive across domestic and global markets continued to weigh heavily on the performance of UK manufacturing during August. Output volumes fell as intakes of new work contracted at the fastest pace for over seven years, while business optimism dropped to a series-record low.“
