Market Commentaries

Did Q1 start with a bang after the lack lustre performance of the retail sector last year, particularly the latter half? Well, not really . . . as a Retail Week reporter commented, it was more of a ‘whimper’. The overriding event from the quarter that has the potential to...

2025 Review After another strong performing year in 2025, we have summarised our thoughts on how the Reading office market performed over the last 12 months below. Wider context The broader economic backdrop remained testing for the UK office market during 2025. Despite some signs of slightly improved economic conditions,...

Q4 2025 was a very gloomy quarter for the retail sector across the UK, thanks in no small part to the budget which took place on 26th November. Economic KPI’s Retail sales across the country were down 7% in November compared to the same month in 2024 – the reduction...

This commentary is written ahead of the Autumn budget and the retail sector is holdings its breath for what the government might deliver. Sixty chief executives of many of the UK’s leading brands have joined forces and they wrote to the chancellor in August to warn that the sector could...

A new noun has entered the retail arena this quarter, that of ‘vibecession’ (as coined by Retail Week) referring to the ‘feeling’ that we are in a recession, which is muting consumer spending. Economic Pressures Weighing on Confidence Confidence is at the root of this ‘feeling’ driven by rising inflation...

2024 Review After a relatively buoyant year in 2024, and signs of more momentum at the start of 2025, we once again reflect upon how the Reading office market performed over the last 12 months. Wider Context The broader economic backdrop remained challenging for the UK office market during 2024....

The average number of Barbers per 10,000 people has more than doubled in the last 10 years, going from 1.4 per 10,000 people to 3.1 in 2023. As the male population has only increased by 6.5% in the same period, the reason for this change must be a substantial increase...

Q3 2024 saw a changing of the political guard, with Labour taking up office after 14 years of a conservative government. The first budget on 30th October by the new Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves, brought in a definite end to the current Retail Rates Relief of a 75%...

A fluctuating Q1 retail market saw some companies thriving and others struggling, but an overall willingness to adapt. UK-Wide Retail Sector January saw a very quiet start to the year – as if the market was tip toeing quietly into the new year, feeling its way to assess if 2024...

After a positive end to 2023, and signs of more momentum at the start of 2024, we have taken a look back to consider how the Reading office market performed over the last 12 months. Large Deals and Out of Town Dominance The Reading Office market in 2023 will perhaps...

Economic Landscape To set the scene of the economic landscape for this period, base rate is at 4.25%; RPI is at 8.9%; CPI is 10.4% and retail sales have been reducing month on month since April 2022. Energy costs continue to be a dominate issue, particularly for the food and...

Subdued levels of market activity in 2022 look set to continue for the first half of 2023 but the prospect of a several major deals and pre-lets in the pipelines bodes well for increased optimism later in the year. In the Greater Reading area, defined as Reading town centre plus...

The retail story from 2022 that potentially has the most far reaching implications is in relation to the substantial contraction of the trend for spend to be online, which was shockingly highlighted by the online giant Amazon reporting a quarterly loss of £3.0bn – its first since 2015 – as...

Current economic and political uncertainties are being reflected in the performance of the Reading office market so far in 2022. Impact of rising energy costs inflation The impact of the cost-of-living crisis and declining confidence across many business sectors are both weighing heavily on the UK economy with the fall...

Reading and a round up of 2021 The Retail Landscape The retail market in 2021 was obviously still very affected by lockdown No.3 (January to March), followed by varying other restrictions for the remainder of the year and also wavering consumer confidence. But at least there was more of a...