LAS VEGAS—It seems like nationalist movements are gaining steam in countries all over the world. The Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, unpredictable elections and secession movements in the Catalonia region of Spain are all part of this growing trend—but how will these movements impact the commercial real estate market in the long and short term? At the recent Lee & Associates broker’s summit in Las Vegas, we sat down with Simon Prichard, senior partner at UK-based brokerage firm Gerald Eve, and Mark Trowell, a partner at Gerald Eve, to talk about how Brexit has impacted the market.

Prichard says that in the short-term, there has been virtually no impact. In the weeks directly following the vote last year, there was a slight dip in investor sentiment, but Prichard says that it also created opportunities for some of their clients, including Goldman Sachs. In the long-term, Prichard is less sure about the impact of Brexit, but he says that the more significant concern will be the unpredictable and divisive politics occurring not only in the United Kingdom but all over the world. If investors feel like there is unpredictability from the government, investment activity could suffer. In this exclusive video interview, Prichard talks about the nationalist movements and how politics are impacting the market, along with global capital flows and a long-term outlook.

Trowell, who focuses on the industrial and logistics markets, says that Brexit has the potential to fuel activity in the logistics market. Despite exiting the European Union, the United Kingdom is still a country of 70 million consumers, and products will reach them one way or another. Trowell says that there are plans to expand the ports to accommodate more trade and that industrial assets near the ports will see a boost in activity as a result. In addition to the impact of Brexit on the industrial market, Trowell also talks about the last-mile solutions in London and how e-commerce is changing the real estate market in this video interview.