This company is a constituent of the property sector. Broadly split into commercial and residential services, the property sector is one of the most popular destinations for private and institutional investment. Residential property covers the buying and selling of private properties and renting, while commercial property services revolve around office and industrial space for businesses.
Property prices are closely linked to the state of the economy and can provide a useful barometer of where a particular market is going. When the economy is doing well, businesses are much more likely to expand, householders are more confident about moving to a new location, and investors are happier to plough capital into the sector, leading to overall stability and steady increases in price.
The buying and selling of land is also big business. Property companies secure planning permission and work closely with developers. There are an increasing number of public-private partnerships, in which projects are partially financed by the public sector and partially by one or several private companies.
The public sector is a major property owner as well as being a consumer of property-related services. Publicly-financed buildings include schools, universities, hospitals and government buildings.
The sector is recovering from one of the biggest shocks in its history. It was the US property sector and its bad debt that lay at the heart of the credit crunch, and which went on to expose major faults in the international financial system.
Watch this space: Increasingly, regulations and customers are focusing on the environmental aspects of the property industry. There is more of a need to demonstrate that new buildings especially are energy efficient. Apart from being environmentally friendly, new owners and tenants are keen to make sure energy bills won’t go through the roof.
