EU Referendum: the UK’s largest listed property companies, as well as a host of leading names from non-listed companies, support a Remain vote. EG here offers a collection of their comments.
Land Securities
In February, Landsec’s chief executive Robert Noel wrote on the company’s website that he would be voting to stay in the EU, saying: “As a business leader, I can foresee the impact leaving the EU will have on the real estate sector in the near term, and I believe it will be very painful for our industry.”
The company also sold £1.1bn of assets in the six months leading up to March because of what it called “wider economic and political uncertainty”.
SEGRO
At a BPF event in April, chief executive David Sleath blamed the property’s “very uncertain times” on the Brexit debate. He said that those with property to sell were “sitting on their hands” until after the vote.
However, in a comment piece for Estates Gazette in June, he said SEGRO would continue to invest in the UK regardless of the vote.
“As a long-term international investor, we place our capital in the markets where we believe the risk-adjusted returns will be most attractive and will continue to thrive whether the UK is in or out of the EU,” he said.
He added that other factors, like e-commerce and urbanisation, were bigger factors than the “short-term economic gyrations” caused by the vote.
Great Portland Estates
Toby Courtauld, chief executive of Great Portland Estates, blamed global uncertainty, including the UK referendum for “affecting broader business confidence and investor appetite” when he commented in Estates Gazette on the company’s annual results in May.
He also added: “It is too early to tell what the impact on the London property market will be, although an extended political stalemate as the consequences of the referendum result are worked out would be unhelpful.”
Hammerson
Chief executive David Atkins signed a pro-EU letter published in The Times in February, joining 197 others business owners. He also signed a similar letter today, the day before the vote.
British Land
British Land has said that a vote for Brexit would have a negative impact on the UK economy and particularly on London, “compromising long-standing trade and investment ties and discouraging future foreign investment”.
Chris Grigg, chief executive of British Land, was another signatory in The Times’ pro-EU letter.
Non-listed companies
Li Ka-Shing
The Hong Kong investor warned that a vote to leave would be “detrimental to the UK and it will have a negative impact on the whole of Europe” in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week.
He added that although Brexit would not be “the end of the world” and that he would keep doing business in the UK, he has planned to cut back on investments in Britain if it votes to leave.
M7
In a column for Estates Gazette, chief executive Richard Croft said that Brexit had “the capacity to create a global systemic shock”. It will, at best, cause a medium-term slowdown in both the UK and Europe.
He went on to say that a leave vote had the potential to lead to breakup of the European Union and another global financial crisis. “While I hope that a Brexit vote would be contained, the law of unintended consequences cannot be ignored,” he said.
He predicted a fall in liquidity in the UK real estate market, and particularly in London. “It is clear that if we were to vote to leave, as a nation we would not make any new friends, while antagonising our existing ones, and that cannot be a positive thing for our industry,” he said.
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