They bet big. Will councils lose big?

摘要

At first glance, Halsey Garton Property looks like a standard propco. Its latest set of accounts, for the year to 31 March 2019, show it owns 17 commercial property assets totalling 1.8m sq ft and that 45% of its portfolio by value is in retail -rather unfortunately under the current circumstances. However, it is not a normal propco. It is an arm's-length company owned and set up by Surrey County Council to invest in commercial real estate - and like many other local authority (LA) outfits, it has bet big on commercial property in the past few years, fuelled by low interest loans from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). Even before the pandemic, the amount councils were spending not just within but outside their jurisdictions was raising eyebrows.