London’s Real Estate Market Falters as Brexit Kills Deal making

London’s commerical property market has become the latest casualty of Brexit. Spending on U.K. offices, malls and warehouses plunged more than 40 percent in the first two months of the year to 4.3 billion pounds ($5.6 billion), according to research firm Property Data. With less than three weeks left before the U.K.’s scheduled withdrawal from the European Union, buyers are watching to see if the attempts to prevent a chaotic no-deal withdrawal will succeed. While the U.K. Parliament prepares to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest Brexit proposal, about 6,000 U.K. real estate professionals gather on Tuesday for the annual MIPIM conference on the French Riviera. In previous years, this was typically a flurry of deal-making, but this year’s gathering in Cannes will be held under a cloud of uncertainty. The wait-and-see attitude has translated into reduced sales and delayed leases. Purchases of City of London offices were almost a third lower than the five-year average in the first two months of the year, according to Savills Plc. Leases for space in the financial district dropped 42 percent in January from a year earlier, the broker’s data show.