Commercial property investors 'feeling more comfortable'

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 21-05-2009

More people are being attracted to investing in commercial property, as the UK market appears to be bottoming out, it has been claimed.

Christopher Bell, managing director for Europe at Knight Frank, said that individuals are once again looking to invest in office interior space as the worst appears to be past for the commercial property market.

He commented: "The UK is getting closer to the bottom in terms of value, where people are beginning to feel more comfortable that tomorrow is not going to be demonstrably cheaper than today."

Mr Bell added that the UK appears to be slightly ahead of the rest of Europe, with further declines predicted in overseas markets for the foreseeable future.

According to the Investment Property Databank report from May this year, UK commercial property capital values fell by 8.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.

However, the fall was smaller than the 14.3 per cent decline in the fourth quarter of 2008.