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The UK Real Estate Market: Understanding it & the diversification of opportunities

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Article posted by Ollie Walker

With the uncertainty around the Real Estate market within Europe, there is a perceived idea that this is not the time to pursue a career within the UK, but this is not necessarily the case, and here’s why:
Over the past 12 months, despite the uncertainty in the market, we have seen a focus shift towards new emerging markets with increased investment activity, arguably creating more opportunity than before.

Investment

Over the last couple of months, we have seen an increase of roles within the investment space, especially with the more opportunistic private equity firms and developers. With the decrease in the value of sterling, we have seen a rise in activity around foreign investors in the market who are looking to pull the trigger on their investment strategy around Q1 next year and therefore have seen an increase in roles within this space.

Emerging Asset Classes

With coverage across multiple assets, the rise and fall of specific asset classes have changed over the last year. In the last 6 months, Alternatives (Purpose Built Student Accommodation, BtR, Hotels) has piqued the interest of the top investors and has become the next emerging market with real growth potential. After a halt in growth plans in the PBSA market over covid, the resurgence is clear to see, and an area which provides great value moving forward.

Asset Management

The volatility of the market has also led to a shift in direction of hiring priorities for other areas of the market, such as your more stereotypical Core/Core+ Investors. With cautiousness around new investment opportunities, we have seen an influx in roles within the Asset Management space due to employers looking to consolidate position and draw value from the existing portfolio. With this new strategy in place, there is a high demand to find high quality Asset Managers with experience across multiple assets, and therefore ample opportunity within this space.

Valuations

As one of the most stable skill sets, the demand for experienced valuers is as high as ever, with a distinct lack of high quality candidates within the market, there is a real demand to get talent from overseas as well as domestically. This not only has created opportunities for people looking to move to the UK, but has seen an increase in salary across the market, and makes it the perfect time to enter the valuations market.

This is what I am seeing in the Real Estate market at the moment; contact me on 020 7478 2546 to discuss how you can take advantage of it in 2023. My colleague Nicole has shared some great insight on the Interim Finance market for 2023 here if you are interested in what is happening in the market more widely.