Mr. Tom Dunne:

That is a very under-researched area. It is very difficult to get a feel for that in any way that one could stand over statistically or qualitatively from a piece of research. If you talk to people in the marketplace, they will tell you that if you are trying to sell a property into an owner-occupied dominated market, the price you will get for a vacant property will be higher than that which you get for an encumbered property, that is, a property with a tenant encumbered. That may be true and is certainly what the estate agents will tell you. We have no research to back that up. I have never been able to find any research that anyone has done on that and even doing any research on it could be problematical. The theory is that you are selling into an owner-occupied market so the price will be higher. Whether or not it is a fact, certainly it is a fear that landlords have and they prefer to get the tenant out and sell the property with vacant possession.

A comparison is often made with the commercial market in this area. That is a false comparison because if you are selling a commercial property, the quality of the tenant paying the rent is an issue for the entire investment. If you are buying an investment which is a property with a tenant, then you can check their accounts and so on. Therefore the two aggregated together is worth more than a property in sole or vacant possession because if you are trying to sell a property in vacant possession in the commercial world, you are selling to someone who has to borrow money to buy and it is far more complex. That comparison does not stack up and it is not all that useful. It is an area that is completely under-researched.