The third quarter Global Property Survey Europe, shows a continued negative sentiment. However, while areas like Scandinavia, Spain, France and Ireland present a dismal picture (showing, for example, over 80% of respondents believing that rents will decrease) some areas show an improvement over the previous quarter. Notoriously, Portuguese professionals are, again, amongst the least pessimistic, with only 40% believing that there will be a downwards trend in the rents, a very similar percentage to the UK respondents.  In fact, overall, Portuguese professionals’ sentiment is almost identical to that of their British counterparts, who have seen the “green shoots” emerging.

However,unlike in Britain,  in Portugal, there is still a generalised feeling that the worse is not over. While most European professionals see the decline in tenant demand slowing down, in Portugal the week economy  is still causing havoc, making it the third country where 50% professionals  see tenant demand falling, a stark contrast to the UK where there is the perception of a slight increase or even to Spain, one of Europe’s worse hit markets  where less than 20% expect demand to continue falling. Portugal is, therefore showing mixed feelings: less people foresee a fall in rents, but low tenant demand is still a problem.

Still according to the survey, overall in Europe, yields will continue to rise, particularly so in Portugal. Only exceptions are the Netherlands (where yields are expected to be flat) and the UK where yields are expected to start falling, even though this is by no means a generalised sentiment.

From a worldwide perspective, Asian emerging economies are the best performers and overall, there is a more positive overview. Brazil is still the best performing market in Latin America with most indicators showing a clear pick up. Interestingly a little reported country, Peru, also is amongst the best performers, even though the professionals in the country expect capital values to remain flat, probably due to the small market size and the small media focus.