Cluttons Bahrain announced the issue of its latest sector report, written by Harry Goodson-Wickes, head of country for Cluttons in Bahrain, and titled “Imperfect property for a perfect portfolio.”
The report gives a detailed insight into the idiosyncrasies of property as an investment, offering an overview of different ‘imperfections’, including depreciation, lease agreements, sluggish supply side, speed of sale, lot size and lack of information.
Goodson-Wickes argues that property investment is, in many ways, less risky than that of equities and bonds. Furthermore property offers returns that often run countercyclical to other yielding stock, thereby smoothing out the overall performance of spread assets, ensuring that there is still a strong place for property investment within a multi-asset portfolio.
The report is especially relevant to the current Bahrain property market, underlining the need to take guidance from property experts on well-built and well-managed buildings, which will endure a medium to long-term investment. Many high profile buildings within Manama are now almost 30 years old, but are virtually obsolete in terms of modern day requirements. However, the Cluttons residential management department is currently managing twelve properties in Manama with 100% occupancy, which validates Cluttons’ philosophy that good property management protects and enhances an asset’s long-term performance.
Equally, availability of good investment stock is an issue, and Cluttons offers a highly skilled team able to identify opportunities as they arise.
“There are clearly imperfections with real estate as an asset. As a property services firm, Cluttons strives to minimise these wherever possible. We place great emphasis on superior property management, and believe ourselves to be the market leaders in this field within Bahrain. In a similar vein, our valuations also show high levels of accuracy, based on our extensive market knowledge built up over 35 years of dedicated presence in the Kingdom,” Goodson-Wickes, said.