Decline in capital values continues to slow

The decline in capital values continued to slow in April, figures from the Investment Property Databank show.

According to the organisation, capital values fell by one per cent last month following a 1.3 per cent fall in March and a 1.5 per cent decrease in February.

All-property returns also rose to -0.5 per cent in April, compared to -0.8 per cent in March.

However, year-on-year all-property total returns reached -11.7 per cent last month, a fall from -10.7 per cent in March.

Malcolm Frodsham, IPD research director, said: "For those investors who thought we had reached the bottom in the first quarter of 2008, these number will be unsettling at best."

But despite challenging market conditions, property firm Land Securities recently announced that it has "performed well" during the past year.

In the firm's preliminary results for the year to March 31st 2008, Land Securities reported £1.56 billion of investment property sales - 5.3 per cent above valuations in March 2007.

Meanwhile, specialist lender Anglo Irish has reported an increase in profits of 16 per cent.

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