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The global head of research at a major agency

My World 2021

My World: June 2021…

This is part of a series of articles where our contributors describe how they think things will look a year from now.

Office demand stays level, as flexible working and a move to lower density cancel each other out – but inflation is a looming worry

With business conditions improving and the second wave of covid-19 fully defeated, in June 2021 I will be explaining what the coming surge in inflation means for real estate. Bond yields will be moving out, causing acute concern that this will push cap rates out as well. To allay these fears, I will revisit 1970s real estate analysis and dig deep into CBRE’s data repository to bring a new generation up to speed on the ‘reverse yield gap’.

Real estate is not a perfect hedge against inflation, but it is a good long-term capital preserver, particularly when inflation becomes higher and more persistent. In my Property Chronicle article of this time next year, I will argue that investors should expect to see property yields slip below those of bonds as the value of inflation-linked cash flows becomes ever more apparent. Property values, I will say, are going to benefit from this surge in inflation.






My World 2021

About Richard Barkham

Richard Barkham

Richard is a specialist in macro and real estate economics. He joined CBRE in 2014 as Executive Director and Global Chief Economist. Prior to taking up his position with CBRE Richard was a Director of Research for the Grosvenor Group an international business with circa $10bn of capital under management in real estate. He was also a non-Executive Director of Grosvenor Fund Management where he was involved in fund strategy, risk analysis and capital raising. Richard is the author of two books and numerous academic and industry papers. In 2012 he published Real Estate and Globalisation (Wiley Blackwell, Oxford), which explains the impact on real estate markets of the rise of emerging markets such as China and Brazil. He has extensive consulting experience and is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Construction and Project Management at the Bartlett School, University College London. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Reading where he taught, in the Departments of Economics and Land Management, between the years of 1987 and 1998.​​​

Articles by Richard Barkham

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