Why the outlook is bleak for commercial property

The UK's obsession with property has spread from homes to office space. The commercial property sector returned 18.8% last year, and 18.3% the year before. But that's precisely why you shouldn't be buying in now, says MoneyWeek editor Merryn Somerset Webb. The average long-term return is much lower - and that means a period of 'dismal' returns is likely in the near future...

I mention the British obsession with property so often in this column you could be forgiven for thinking I'm obsessed with everyone else's obsession. And in a way it's true.

However, my thoughts are less about property itself than about how the fact that it has performed so well for so long has made people think it will keep doing so.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.