LONDON-Uncertainty of the rest of the year has caused NewmarkKnight Frank to downplay local markets, even though asset classessuch as London office have enjoyed a healthy rebound in demand andprices. However, the company doesn’t believe the growth can besustained, and expects a downward turn until at least July 2011,according to a recent company market outlook.

The company points out that unemployment fell to 7.8% in August,a positive indicator. Price growth is also much stronger than itwas one year ago, but figures show that the growth has beentrending downward since a peak at about 7% in December 2009.

Claire Higgins, head of commercial research, half-jokes that itmay be that the British just like to make gloomy forecasts. “We dosee the growth slowing, and there are a lot of concerns for theoutlook for the UK economy as a whole We’re facing a lot of severecuts. We’ve seen some strong growth figures in the second quarter,but it’s the last quarter that we expect growth like that. We feelthat we’re teetering on the brink – some areas might stabilize, andothers may deteriorate.”