Accordingly, Land Securities has a price to book ratio of 0.64, British Land 0.70 and Hammerson 0.71 with yields of 4.3 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.
Just the other week, Hammerson rebuked a takeover approach by Klépierre, the largest mall operator in Europe, which had recognised the value in the Hammerson shares. Albeit it was an approach
dismissed by the board of Hammerson, calling it "wholly inadequate" and "opportunistic", it did go some way to re-energising the sector that has for too long been hugely out of favour.
The negativity surrounding the UK economy, and in particular the UK property market, appears to be firmly priced in.
Therefore we believe that there is a strong case to argue for the UK real estate market offering strong upside from here - on the basis that we do not witness a near Armageddon Brexit scenario.
It is a sector we see tremendous value in, and perversely perhaps, one doesn’t have to be particularly bullish on UK bricks and mortar to get excited about the pricing of such companies.
James Sullivan is managing director of Miton Optimal
