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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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At the end of 2001 we predicted that there are several scenarios for the real estate market development in the United Kingdom depending on the economic environment in the rest of the industrial world. With the positive signs of economic recovery coming from both sides of the Atlantic we can expect that after the short pause of the market activity during the past winter we can experience continuing growth in the months ahead.

On the residential market things in the last months looked much brighter and there are less concerns about the future development. 57 percent of the chartered surveyors in the United Kingdom reported in April price rises (8 percent up from March). The regions of Yorkshire and Humbershire are leading the list with 96 percent of surveyors reporting price increase at the end of the first quarter of 2002.

Local experts explain this trend with the low number of properties for sale on the market (lowest for the last two years). The big jumps in the prices can be detected in the regions away from London, where the pace has slowed in the last months. This can be explained partly by the much higher overall prices and the fears that possible interest rate rises may affect the house affordability.

With such a constant market development, which wasn't affected by the 9/11 aftermath, we can expect that the actual positive trends will continue for months ahead however with different paces in the different regions of the UK. Even in London the concerns of whether this growth will be sustained in a long run seem for now to be purely theoretical.

Not so rosy picture presents the office market in the UK (from the landlords' point of view). However after last Christmas the business confidence has been recovering, which is a positive sign for the market development in the next months. After almost half of year of buyers' (tenants') market, at the end of the first quarter of 2002 the market has been balanced with surveyors reporting sales and lettings drops only a little margin ahead of those reporting rises. The margin between these two groups has reached for a short period 38 percent at the end of 2001.

So far office space tenants are benefiting from the buyers' market and the fact that the available spaces have increased in the last 12 months. In some areas the landlords have been forced to use again financial incentive packages such as renting free periods for new tenants. On the other hand, the new enquiries rose for the first time since last summer as firms plan taking on new spaces in the months to come. With exception of London, where the forecasts for rent increases are moderate, the prospects for the other regions look much brighter.

The general perception is that the market in general is again finding its course up and that the show still has a space to go on.

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