Commercial investment spreads its wings

Online, October 14, 2009 (Newswire.com) - According to new research by commercial property brokers and consultants Cushman & Wakefield, activity in London's commercial market is skyrocketing, with international property investors continuing to favour the UK market - and Savills found that the number of banks willing to lend to commercial developers has doubled of late...

Activity in the UK commercial sector rose by more than 12 per cent in the three months to the end of September, an almost unthinkable achievement when considering the state of the industry at the end of last year.

This increase represented the second quarter of positive growth and the first time that London has shown this pattern since the boom time of 2007.

Some £1.6 billion was invested in central London's main West End and City and Docklands markets.

The West End again showed the biggest increase in activity with £909 million invested, which is an increase of 24 per cent on the second quarter of the year and up a whopping 32 per cent on the same time last year.

Rather than most of the money coming from home-grown Londoners, more than 70 per cent of transactions are being carried out by international buyers. This is mainly due to the exchange rates - the weak pound means that can get far more bang for their buck.

London's property market also seems to be on the road to recovery, so many investors are jumping in fast before the ship sails and they are priced out once again.

The market received a boost from the Libyan Investment Authority, which paid £155 million for Portman House in the West End in July, and the recent sale of a 50 per cent stake in British Land's Broadgate development to Blackstone, the American private equity group, for just over £1 billion.

Research from Savills was positive too - it revealed that the number of banks willing to lend to commercial property developers has almost doubled in the past six months.

In March, the group said that there were only 12 lenders willing to lend more than £20 million per transaction to property companies. Now there are 23, with six even prepared to offer more than £100 million.

Overall, both sets of research conclude that the future looks brighter than expected for the UK's commercial property sector.

For more information on commercial properties and the market in general, please visit http://commercial.themovechannel.com/

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

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