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: Calculated Risk

CRE Bust: UK Style

By Anonymous

From Bloomberg: British Land Has $6.1 Billion Loss on Property Slump (ht Adam)

British Land?s real estate was valued at 5.8 billion pounds on March 31, about 28 percent less than a year earlier, [British Land said in a statement today]. More than half of the properties are retail warehouses and malls, and the rest are office buildings.
...
Most of British Land?s office buildings are in the City of London, where rents are expected to fall back to 1991 levels by the end of this year ... as job losses and a mistimed building boom depress prices.
...
The City of London now has enough empty space to hold two- thirds of Canary Wharf, its rival financial district 1 1/2 miles to the east. About 9 million square feet (855,000 square meters) are available in the City and that may climb to 12 million by the end of 2009, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. Rents that reached a high of 65 pounds per square foot in mid-2007 are forecast to fall to 40 pounds by the end of this year ...

Rents back to 1991. Property values off 28%. Ouch.

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on May 21, 2009 (boomark / email).