AN AWARDWINNING YEAR!

IN DAVID’SMEMORY

PRESTON’SRAPID TRANSIT

NEWS

SPRING 2012

Hello and welcometo our Spring

2012 newsletter.Against a backdrop ofincreasing economicuncertainty andcontinued constraintson bank funding

market activity has been relatively low witha drop in enquiries in the final part of 2011likely to translate to a lower level of activityin the early part of 2012. Capital value

Welcomeexpectations have also eased with a morenegative view of the prospects beingtaken in most commercial propertysectors. However some sectors havewitnessed continued expansion includingconvenience foods, healthcare andagriculture. In addition stunning bargainsare available with high quality stock on themarket at affordable prices for purchaserswith funds in place.

In David’sMemory

In one of our most emotionalfund-raising events to date, the teamfrom Petty were joined by over 50

business associates and colleagues at amemorial luncheon for our much lovedcolleague, David Thorp who tragicallylost his life in a walking accident earlierlast year.

David, just 43 years old led the firm’sbusiness operation in Manchester andthe lunch was arranged with his wife Kosin his memory and also to raise as muchmoney as possible for one of David’sfavourite charities, Sparks whichprovides much needed medicalresearch into children’s health andmedical conditions.

The lunch at the Mark Addy inManchester, was followed by an auctionof merchandise including a framed andsigned Sir Bobby Charlton photograph,a signed Manchester United Pennant, aweekend break and David’s very ownKawasaki motorbike and in total, theevent raised over £1000.Speaking at the lunch, Phil Kelly from Petty’s said:

“This event was very much all aboutDavid, down to the venue, food choicesand his much loved Manchester United!We were thrilled to have his wife Koswith us and the many people that turnedup to show their support. David was atrue asset to Petty’s but mostimportantly a great friend and he iscertainly missed by everyone who knewhim whether that was on a personal noteor as business colleague.”

Marshall HouseOur Preston office, have recently securedthe prominent office agency instruction forMarshall House. Being city centre based,the building is owned and managed byHurstwood Holdings who acquired thebuilding in view of it’s strategic localityand future opportunities to providecommercial accommodation at the heartof Preston.The building has been recentlyrefurbished to form open plan offices andhas it’s own dedicated onsite parking foroccupiers and visitors alike. The spacebenefits from fantastic proximity to retail,banking, leisure, and health amenities aswell as the outer peripheries of the city.Such opportunities are rarely availablewithin the CBD. Marshall House extendsto 9 individually floors which may be subdivided to form compartmentalisedoffices, meeting rooms and break outspace, over a floor plate of 3,000 sqft ormultiple floor plates as required.

Attractive leasehold terms are available tonegotiate, and introductory opportunitiescan be discussed through our Prestonoffice or Lancashire Agency Team.Preston will be celebrating the PrestonCity Guild for 2012 and as such willcelebrate current, historical and futuretrading capacity in the city, fundamentallyunderwritten by a retailing catchment ofcirca 425,000 people, 4 exceptionaltransport links via the M55, M61, M6 andM65 motorways which are all within a10mins radius. The West Coast Mainline betweenGlasgow, Edinburgh, andLondon (through Birmingham) has amaximum journey time of 2hrs 50minsand Manchester and Liverpoolapproximately 50mins thereto. There arealso 3 Internationaland Domestic airports via BlackpoolInternational, Liverpool John Lennon andManchester.

Our lunch in memory of our beloved colleagueand friend Dave Thorp raised £1,000 forchildrens health charity,Sparks.Here is thepresentation of the cheque with Dave's widowKos,to Nia Williams of Sparks.A heartfeltthanks to everyone who supported us.

FOR SALE/MAY LET

• Quality finish, with security door access, reception & lift

• Dedicated car park• Substantial rental incentives available

• Various office sizes

• 3,437 sq.m• Detached property • Production facility and warehouse.• Secure plot with 3 roller shutter dooraccess

• Adjoining car park

TO LET / MAY SELL TO LET

• Located in the heart of Manchester’s professional district

• Secure basement car parking• Recently refurbished• Rents from only £9.95 per sq.ft

CITY CENTRE OFFICESRECENTLY CONSTRUCTED OFFICESWAREHOUSE/MANUFACTURING

PREMISES

Barnfield House, Accrington Rd,Blackburn BB1 3NY

61 Moseley StreetManchester M2 3HZ

Enterprise House, Billington Rd,Burnley BB11 5UB

Petty’s Preston agency team have beenappointed to act for Trampower

assisting them to deliver a rapid transitlight rail passenger tram over fouressential lines, first comprising Fishergatethrough to Preston East Employment Areaaround Bluebell Way. The linesrequirement and inception has takenseveral key steps forward with planningconsent now granted for the ‘Guild Line’and several other new regeneration andmixed use development schemes. Thesedevelopment strategies adopt the tram aspart of their green transport plan. Indeedthe line’s performance will be boosted bythe announcement in the LEP that JohnLewis will now secure premises atDeepdale Retail Park and Centros willendeavour to develop out former JamesHall Spar site to Ribbleton. Further details are available atwww.prestontrampower.co.uk

PrestonRapid Transit

At Petty’s we consider our levels ofcustomer service, local knowledge

and staff expertise as being the pivotalelements that keep us at the top of ourgame yet again, we are thrilled that thishas been recognised as 2011 proved tobe full of success when it comes toindustry accolades. As proud Home Sale Network members,the year kicked off to a fine start, when thenational Home Moving Trends Surveyannounced that Home Sale NetworkAgents are consistently exceeding theexpectations of their clients. The surveyrevealed that 84% of customers who haveengaged with an estate agent wouldrecommend them to a friend. However,Home Sale Network Agents collectivelyreceived a score of 87% positioning themconfidently above the average. Later in the year, Petty’s was shortlisted asone of the top 10 Lettings Agent in theNorth West Region at the coveted Estateand Letting Agent Awards known in theindustry as the ESTAs. These awards arebased solely on customer satisfactionrather than a judging panel, so it wasfantastic news to know that our highstandards of customer service arerecognised by our clients. Petty’s werealso shortlisted for not one but two RedRose Awards, featuring in thehighly-competitive Property Business ofthe Year and Commitment to Skillscategories. The icing on the cake came as we wereawarded the prestigious title of ‘Best

An AwardWinning Year for Petty’s

Agent in the North West Region’ at theHome Sale Network Awards 2011! A nomination for the award was a fantastictestament in itself to the hard work andcombined effort of our team, but to takethe award was the ultimate accolade! Furthermore, our newly appointed head ofour Preston office, Jody Lauder scoopedthe coveted title of Property Professionalof the Year at the Lancashire BusinessAwards run by lobbying group. DowntownLancashire in Business. In a confidentmove, this expansion further consolidatesPetty’s high ambitions for growth anddiversification into other economicallyactive areas. The new office will give thefirm greater access to those previouslyuntapped agency and professionalmarkets of Lancaster, Blackpool and theFylde as well as local towns such asLeyland and Chorley.These are all very proud achievements forthe team at Petty Residential, PettyLettings and Petty Commercial and welook forward to seeing what 2012 bringsfor the team!

FOR SALE

• Good commercial trading location• Rare opportunity• Flexible letting terms• Plentiful on-site parking• Opportunity for bespoke fit out• Good retail and service amenity

• Suitable for trade counter use• Superb yard with loading door• Visible main road frontage• Well established trade retail location

TO LET FOR SALE

• 15 year full repairing and insuring lease from the 27th November 2008, subject to five yearly rent reviews

• Main road location with ample car parking close by

INVESTMENT PROPERTY NEW BUILD HIGH SPEC OFFICESTRADE RETAIL OPPORTUNITY

Northgate Rd, White LundLancaster LA1 5JR

74-76 Burnley Road, Padiham BB12 8QN

345 Moorside Road, Swinton,Manchester M27 9HH

From April 2011, the empty propertyBusiness Rates threshold reverted to

rateable value £2,600 from the previouslevel of £18,000. This is of great concernfor SME’S and commercial propertyowners who have empty premises in theirportfolio.

This will result in businesses with emptyproperties facing the prospect of havingto pay thousands of pounds extra inbusiness rates from April 2011. TheFederation of Small Businesses haswarned that this will place a verysignificant burden on companiesstruggling in the current economicclimate.

After a short holiday of six months, whenno rates are paid on empty industrialbuildings and three months for offices,owners or former occupiers are liable forfull rates payment, irrespective of theirefforts to lease the buildings. BusinessRates are basically a tax, similar toCouncil Tax on residential property.

In opposition, both the Conservative andLiberal Parties were opposed to this tax,but since coming into power they have yetto do anything about it, except for amarginal increase in the threshold ofthose small properties which are exemptfrom paying Business Rates. This may insome part be due to the higher thananticipated revenue raised by the initiativeand the Governments’ requirement forincome to finance public expenditure.

Empty rates on commercial buildings areeffectively a tax on the landlords’ orowners’ failure to attract an occupier. Inthe current climate the continuing lack offinance and a shortage of businesstenants have stalled speculativedevelopment, with many developers

Business Rates for Empty Buildingsbeing further discouraged by the potentialburden of empty rates payments whilstthe property is being marketed to let.There are many foreseen adverseresults of empty rates:

Firstly, taxation should generally belevied on profit or income, but in the caseof empty rates it is being levied on failure,making a bad situation even worse.Building owners never intentionally leavea building empty, regardless of whetherthe owner is a large institutional landlordor a small business. If a property doesnot generate rent, then there is no incomefrom which the owner can pay his tax.

It is also important to appreciate thatmany buildings remain empty due tocompanies restructuring to reduce costsin order to survive this downturn andempty rates penalise this strategy.

If a tenant is paying Business Rates aswell as rent on a surplus vacant building,it represents a substantial drain on theirbusiness.

Secondly, in the current economicclimate buildings remain empty due to thefact that there is a surplus of commercialproperties and limited demand,regardless of price.

The argument that by increasing thefinancial penalties of holding emptybuildings, will encourage greatercompetitiveness in the market is thereforemistaken. Companies which hold leaseson vacant surplus buildings are tied into arental commitment by their lease whichgenerally cannot be avoided.

Thirdly, institutional investors ofteninclude pension funds which now faceadditional costs of holding empty

Blackpool’ssecurePetty’s professional team have helped

True Bearing Chartered FinancialPlanners of Euxton secure client officesextending to 3,000 sqft at Blackpool’sWhitehill’s Business Park for the purposesof providing a SIPP to the Directors of theirclient’s business and facilitate strategicbusiness expansion for the clientoperation.

buildings when no income is generatedthis in turn will reduce the amount ofmoney paid to pension pots, when manyfunds are already depleted due to thedownturn.

Fourthly, empty rates are acting as adeterrent to investment in buildingprojects at a time when there is a generalshortage of good quality new commercialstock. This will certainly adversely impacton the future competitiveness of the NorthWest as a region.

Whilst the Government is under pressureto raise tax revenues from all sources,empty business rates penalise investmentand development therfore substantiallyreducing the ability of SME’S to not onlysurvive these difficult times, but also toplan further expansion. The Governmenthas the opportunity to put measures inplace to aid the recovery by the abolitionof this penal tax.

MANCHESTER

LEEDS

LIVERPOOL

PRESTON

BIRMINGHAM

LONDON

Property

Professional

of the Year!

WINNER

LANCASHIRE

BUSINESSAWARDS

West Drayton, LondonA high street public house with 8 letting bedroomsSale agreed at £450,000.

Rossendale, LancashireModern kitchen showroom of 2,884 sq ftSale agreed at £160,000.

LancasterVillage convenience store of 1,350 sq ft Recent sale at £285,000 (including goodwill).

North ManchesterStorage and distribution complex of 200,000 sq ftSale agreed at £2,750,000.

Ardwick, Manchester Industrial unit of 7,000 sq ftRecent sale at £340,000.

North ManchesterCash & Carry warehouse of 6,000 sq ft plus 4,000sq ft mezzanineRecent sale at £375,000.

BoltonNeighbourhood convenience store with threebedroom living accommodationRecent sale at £200,000.

“Our 8 offices have a combined experienceof over 150 years in the property market!”

Deals

BURNLEY

NEWCASTLE

EssexSeaside resort 30 bedroom hotelSold November 2011 £930,000

Further transactional evidence is available from ournational team.

The following provide a small segment of transactionsPetty Commercial have been involved in and furtherhighlight the diversity of market sector covered.

www.pettycommercial.co.uk