The third Wednesday of every month is a day that is currently ringed in red on the calendar of every investor in UK real estate. That’s the day the UK's Office of National Statistics releases inflation data. And how that data moved the previous month matters enormously for real estate prospects over the next year because where inflation goes, interest rates follow. “Markets had started to price in big interest rates falls at the end of last year. It was just a case of when, by how much and which central bank went first,” Savills Head of Global Cross Border Investment Rasheed Hassan said. “That has tempered a touch in the first few weeks of this year, but the notion that we are past the worst remains,” Hassan added. “Despite the slight retrenchment, the difference in five-year SONIA from high to low was in the order of 200 basis points in the last couple of months and yields are still high. If investors are going to take a cyclical position, it is feeling like a good time to try and do it.” 
With the UK economy expected to be sluggish — EY is predicting gross domestic product will grow by just 0.9% this year — 2024 is not going to be one to tell the grandkids about for UK real estate. But falling inflation leading to falling interest rates is a vital… Read the full story here. | 
