Activity within the London commercial property market is experiencing a turnaround in its fortunes and is leading the way for the rest of the commercial property sector in the UK, a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has found, according to The Wall Street Journal?s website.
For the first time in two years, enquiries and new lettings in the UK commercial property market increased in the latest quarter of this year. The RICS survey found that tenant movement in office and retail locations switched into the positive in London far quicker than the rest of the UK.
Both central and Greater London revealed rises in activity in the commercial marker for six months running. There were also signs of positivity within the industrial property market in the Midlands and south of England.
Oliver Gilmartin, senior economist for RICS said: ?The results may provide the first signal that a strengthening in the global economy has filtered into multinational lettings activity, particularly for central London offices where the veil of pessimism for the outlook for rents is slowly lifting.?
Mr Gilmartin said: ?Industrial lettings demand is also gaining some support from the improved economic backdrop. The laggard remains the retail sector where surveyors expect little improvement in tenant activity in the run up to the crucial Christmas trading period.?
The lengths of property leases were found to have shortened in the last quarter, and more quickly than the previous three months. This may have boosted the uptake of retail and office property lettings.
The improvement in the UK commercial property sector is said to be fairly similar to the bounce back being observed in the residential property market.
