Nick Leslau, chairman of Prestbury Investments and one of the industry’s most followed investors, has said that “the peak is some way behind us”.
Turmoil in the stock market and the oil price collapse have given a bearish feel to the start of 2016 and Leslau, whose company Prestbury manages Secure Income REIT, believes that “most of those looking to cash in at the top have missed the boat”.
Private equity firms that have bought giant portfolios of distressed assets from banks are now stuck with properties they had hoped to move on quickly at a profit, added Leslau.
“The previously unending queue of serious property bidders has dwindled to a more modest trickle, with even off-market deals becoming prevalent, a phenomenon long absent,” he said.
“Many opportunity funds have silos full of tertiary real estate that will have to be sold eventually, and that market remains wafer thin.”
Despite the bleak outlook, Leslau does not predict a collapse as dramatic as that experienced in 2008 because of a more tempered debt market.
Read Leslau’s comments in full >>
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