20^th November 2009

Commercial Real Estate, Small Banks and Small Business

As we have discussed recently, commercial real estate (CRE) remains a concern for financial markets as a whole. With many large and small banks still holding CRE assets, including potentially explosive Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS), the anaemic state of the real economy has the potential to depress economic recovery further.

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30^th October 2009

Commercial Real Estate Outlook

Commercial property has been a very popular asset class over the last decade. Investors who were spooked by the equity market dot-com crash were encouraged to invest in commercial property. Investors were encouraged to speculate on a form of “carry trade”- borrow at historic low interest rates and lease the property to take advantage of high rental yields and capital growth (a return on their principle). Add globalisation and the ability to move money globally for very little cost to the mix and this strategy presented very attractive opportunities.

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