Industry expert calls for property health check
The credit crisis has forced most home owners to review their financial commitments, resulting in borrowers renegotiating mortgages, rescheduling loans or switching banks. Now, as the financial slowdown affects almost every market, property expert Peter Folwell is calling on commercial and retail owners to conduct a property health check.
"In an economic downturn, you need to make sure all your assets are as healthy as possible," says Folwell, head of Plowman Craven's Property Services team. "During times of ready credit, you could buy speculatively and sell buildings on easily, it was a fluid market. Now we have to sweat the most out of the assets we hold."
With the cost of borrowing high and the value of properties dropping into negative equity, all elements in a property portfolio need to be analysed to ensure they are working hard.
In the highly competitive retail sector, a good location is essential to business success, but a prime site is expensive and retailers need to make every square inch work for its keep.
Plowman Craven, a leading geomatics company, uses laser scanning combined with traditional survey techniques to provide precise measurements of the internal and external areas and the calculations for Zone A, the optimum sales area.
"Retailers need to plan for space optimisation and our highly accurate surveys help architects, design teams and centre managers get the most out of every bit of selling space. We have worked with many of the biggest names in the high street and the information we provide is vital as a valuation tool," says Folwell.
All buildings, whether they are offices, industrial estates or business parks, are competing for premier tenants, the blue chip businesses which attract long term tenants to the property. A better environment equals better returns, so managers should consider refurbishment, landscaping or adding a café to ensure full occupancy.
Changes to the Empty Building Rate Relief means that any vacant commercial property will soon be paying full rates, so not only is it not producing an income, it's a drain on resources.
Peter Folwell believes that some of the property portfolios are responding well to the tight market conditions and are 'putting their house in order'. "Some of our biggest clients are using our data management facility to ensure all of the documents and drawings relating to their properties are complete and up-to-date and maintained by us so that in the event they need to sell, lease or renovate a building they are in a position to move quickly and capitalise on an opportunity in the market. It is a huge advantage to facilities management if they can access accurate, comprehensive, reliable measurement data and that is exactly what Plowman Craven provides our clients," he says.