Markets

Colm Lauder: Commercial property M&A activity will tempt vital US capital

A recent trend of deals between listed UK property companies could be good news for the wider European market

The lack of direct investment transactions - 2023 was the lowest since 2012 - has meant that confidence in these current valuations, despite capital values correcting by almost a third, remains uncertain. Picture: Getty

The direct property investment market in the UK and Ireland, especially in the traditional sectors like office and retail, has been generally moribund.

It is unlikely to be keeping agents busy in the first two months of 2024, but investment bankers have been unexpectedly busier given the surge in public property company mergers and acquisitions. This is the, perhaps unsurprising, outcome of more confident management teams taking advantage of discounted valuations of their peers and ...