BPF: Commercial property recovery will be slow

Posted 22/12/2009

The British Property Federation (BPF) has predicted that the performance of the commercial property sector is likely to be impacted by the recession for some time to come.

Ian Fletcher, director of policy for real estate at the BPF, stated that commercial property normally recovers more slowly than the domestic sector, forecasting that this will be the case in this instance.

He said: “The commercial property sector was late at going into the recession but later coming out of it.

“The nature of the sector means that it tends to feel the after-effects of the recession.”

This prediction follows a recent warning from the Bank of England that people borrowing money to invest in commercial property risk defaulting on debts, due to continued low demand and depressed prices in the sector.

Mr Fletcher described the bank’s findings as “very pertinent”, particularly among medium-sized firms which have been unable to raise capital through other methods.