Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has re-appraised the European property sector with a slew of upgrades for UK-listed firms.
In a note entitled Back to School, it said: “We revisit positioning across the sector which screens as up with events on average but for which individual stocks offer opportunities.
“Moreover, abundant liquidity in private markets, M&A, and inflation could well provide further share price support, while bond yields could drive volatility.”
In the circular, the Wall Street bank upgraded LondonMetric (LON:LMA) to ‘overweight’ and Big Yellow (LON:BYG), British Land (LON:BLND), Land Securities (LON:LAND) and Shaftesbury (LSE:SHB) from ‘underweight’ to ‘equal-weight’. Segro (LSE:SGRO) and Derwent (LON:DLN) remain among the bank's sector top picks (overweight). Unite (LON:UTG), meanwhile, was downgraded to ‘equal-weight’.
“Rental and investment demand for logistics property are [set] to drive outsized returns for longer, while care homes are set to benefit from various tailwinds,” Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) told clients.
“Office values are being 'bailed out' by abundant capital availability despite underwhelming rental market dynamics, which is making us tweak estimates higher.
“Meanwhile, the material erosion of pricing power in retail will most likely have significant repercussions for stocks when equity markets' focus shifts once again from cyclical (reopening) to structural (e-commerce) drivers, we argue.”