Commercial property capital values continue to grow

Commercial property capital values continued to grow over the third quarter of 2009, new figures have revealed.

The latest Investment Property Databank (IPD) UK Quarterly Property Index revealed that values rose by 1.5 per cent, which marked a 5.6 per cent improvement on the previous three-month period.

In addition, the total return to investors was 3.4 per cent across the quarter, which was up from -2.2 per cent in the previous three months.

Malcolm Frodsham, research director at IPD, said: "After eight quarters of negative performance commercial real estate has moved back into the black.

"Of real encouragement last quarter was that whilst rents are still falling, these falls have finally moderated across huge swathes of the UK real estate market."

Research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors revealed that a positive majority of respondents are reporting a rise in commercial property enquiries and lettings activity for the first time in around two years.