View from top differs at Quintain and Helical Bar

Two company bosses today gave contrasting commentaries on the turmoil in the commercial property world, with one seeing a glass half empty and the other half full.

John Plender, chairman of the Wembley and Greenwich developer Quintain Estates, said: "These are the most difficult conditions the company and many of its peers have faced, and the impact in the yields moving out in the wider market, which is in turn reflected by the marked increase of the discount factor applied by valuers to our schemes in Wembley and Greenwich. We expect to see further pressure on valuations."

Helical Bar chairman Giles Weaver agrees on the background but said: In such torrid market conditions we expect to see buying opportunities that arise only once or twice in a property career."

Quintain's net asset value fell 24% to 443p a share in the last six months while Helical's were down only 5% to 333p.