OK, property might not going great guns on the capital appreciation front in the short term recession but let’s not forget that as an asset class, the yields are looking pretty good and profits can be made.

If you’re sitting on top of a few million, you’re probably wondering where your money is best hedged. Banks don’t look so safe right now and gold doesn’t offer both the tax breaks and leverage that you can get with property.

That’s why instituional money is heading into property, but not for a few months. I’m confident mid-2009 we’ll start to see institutional money arrive on the property doormat.

What will it look like?

Sovereign wealth funds and overseas portfolio owners all know that money locked in the UK long term makes sense, they’re just waiting for the storm to blow over and the bargains to be had. When these guys get involved they don’t waste time buying a flat here, an HMO here as a first time buyer might - they buy large portfolios to use their economies to negotiate discounts.

And “storm blowing over” means the exit of 1000s of would-be property investors and gurus who are still promoting the same way of doing business that worked pre-crunch.

So SWF money will come in the form of the representative - the agent fronting the fund interest in the UK. Expect to find a lot of fixers with Chinese, South African and evn Japanese accents sniffing around networking events the other side of 2009.

That’s why we’re building BMV Monster - the exchange for investors to trade with other investors - because that is where the SWFs and institutional investors are going to land as their first point of contact. Time to get ready…

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