Land Securities injects realism into the UK property market
After announcing a 34% reduction in the value of its property portfolio, Land Securities has shocked both the UK stock market and the UK property sector today. The company has heavy exposure to both the retail sector and the office space sector across the UK and today's figures indicate the situation may be worse than many had anticipated. Overall the company announced losses of £4.7 billion against a loss of nearly £1 billion last year and offered a rather downbeat forecast for 2009 and 2010.
The company has significant exposure to the likes of London's Piccadilly Circus and Birmingham's Bull Ring shopping centre as well as significant other retail and office developments around the country. The company itself has been forced to reduce the number of investments it holds raising money to pay down the ever-growing debt pile. While nobody is suggesting that the future of Land Securities is in any way in doubt, the ongoing turmoil in the UK property sector has certainly impacted upon income and investment returns.
Yet again we have a significant injection of realism into the UK property market amid headlines which had been indicating a potential steadying of the ship and slow recovery towards the end of 2009 and early 2010.
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