When the Brexit referendum result was announced in 2016, it is fair to say a lot of commercial property developers and investors panicked. Seven large open-ended property funds had to suspend trading due to a sudden spike in redemption requests.
Meanwhile, Britain’s largest listed property company Landsec, which had already been winding down its development programme for fear of a market correction, said it was “battening down the hatches” and stopping all speculative development.
British Land, Landsec’s closest rival, kept its head, however. Its chief executive Chris Grigg kept quiet about what the Brexit vote meant for commercial property, arguing it was too hard to judge, and carried on committing to new developments, with or without tenants being signed up beforehand. Two years on, he