Investors seeing price growth for art and antiques
Art and antiques offer a ’safe haven’ for investors, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) claimed today.
According to the organisation, prices have consistently trended upwards for these investments - in stark contrast to the turmoil in stocks, bonds and commodities that has been observed over recent months.
Equities investments have been hit particularly hard by the credit crunch, with global stock markets having dropped 50 per cent from 2007’s highs at the beginning of this year.
However, Rics said that art and antiques prices remain in ’positive territory’ and will continue to grow over the third quarter.
Oil and watercolour paintings were revealed to be doing particularly well, with five per cent more surveyors reporting a rise, rather than a fall in prices over the second quarter.
However, contemporary art took a hit in April-June, with a negative price balance of 24 per cent reported.
For antiques, militaria scored a positive balance of 32 per cent over the quarter, while jewellery notched up 26 per cent.
Andrew Davies at Rics commented: ’It is clear that some sectors of the arts and antiques market are fairing better than others at the moment with the traditional ’safe havens’ of jewellery and silverware still attracting the more cautious investor.
’The outlook for arts and antiques remains positive in the near-term as demand is strong and looks set to stay so.’
