Investing in commercial property could bring higher returns than capital markets, according to Gerrie van Biljon, executive director of Business Partners. Having recently allocated £500m of its annual investment budget to commercial property, risk finance firm Business Partners are clearly confident in the performance of property assets. Business Partners hopes to de-risk its investment portfolio by developing a property strategy...

London's commercial property market continued to boom in the first quarter of the year but further growth is constrained by a lack of properties coming onto the market, according to estate agent, Cushman & Wakefield. £2.75 billion worth of property deals took place in the first quarter of 2013, down from £3.98 billion the previous year. International investors still see...

Demand for commercial property in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas has seen impressive growth during the first quarter of 2013, according to research from international real estate consultants, Jones Lang LaSalle. Preliminary data shows direct investment volumes reaching US$94 billion, up 8% on the first quarter of 2012. The research, which covers 60 countries across the world, shows that...

Cities such as Mumbai, Shanghai and, more surprisingly, Sydney, are the best value locations to house a business, according to a new report. Savills World Cities Review shows that the most expensive cities were, in order, Hong Kong, London and New York; almost three times the price of other alternatives. As a fully economically developed and fledging city, Sydney stands...

British Land has announced plans to raise one billion pounds to take advantage of a growing number of commercial property opportunities. The group will target investment towards the purchase of several retail and office properties which have come onto the market. British Land is one of a number of property companies raising cash to fund expansion of late. Shopping centre...

Although UK property investors have seen their holdings decline on average 11.4 per cent in the last five years, there is a growing belief that commercial returns in 2013 and beyond will be more impressive. Tens of thousands of investors lost considerable amounts of cash following the property crash in 2007 and 2008 and with that came plummeting property values...

A recent seminar on the future of the Midlands property market has predicted a new wave of demand for quality office space in Birmingham, with the prospect of a 'perfect storm' now a realistic possibility. Rates of demand are expected to increase within the next two years but Jonathan Carmalt, director of Jones Lang LaSalle, believes it could be another...

Despite wavering economic growth, improving demand for office space in key regions of the UK is providing a welcome boost for the commercial property market. Total office space take-up volumes across six key markets, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester was up four per cent in 2012, and is expected to develop further, according to Jeremy Richard, director at...

2013 is expected to mark the bottoming-out of the UK commercial property market, with recovery expected towards the end of the year, according to the latest real estate predictions from Deloitte. The downward trend of the nation's commercial capital values is forecast to be no more, as investors seek to focus their attention outside of their core markets for the...

New research from BNP Paribas Real Estate has indicated the total take-up of office space from new tenants in London increased by 10 per cent in Q4 2012 compared with the previous quarter. Although take-up in a number of London submarkets throughout the final quarter of 2012 declined, the City continued to prosper, where take-up rose by an impressive 45...