London Commercial Property Investment Tops Rest Of UK In 2012

LONDON | Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:12pm EDT (Reuters) – More money was invested in shops and offices in central London than the rest of Britain combined last year, a regular report by property consultancy DTZ showed on Wednesday. Some 16.1 billion pounds ($24.9 billion) was invested in the center of the capital in 2012 versus 10.9 billion a year earlier and a total of 32 billion pounds for the country as a whole. Britain’s property market is still suffering from the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and the economy as a whole is struggling to eke out growth, hit by a fall in consumer confidence and the biggest cuts in public spending since the second world war. The 30.4 billion pounds invested in commercial property in 2011 compares to a peak of around 50 billion in 2005. “There was a lot of risk in 2012, a lot of people were concerned about what was going on in Europe and at such times people tend to look at the larger, more liquid markets ,” said DTZ’s Head of UK Research, Ben Burston. “There has always been a distinction in pricing between London and key centers in the UK, that became more acute last year,” he said, adding that this trend has given rise to attractively priced opportunities in the regions. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; editing by Patrick Graham) Taylor Scott International