Commercial property: investors rush for the exit

We’ve warned against UK commercial property for some time – and now it seems we are being proved right. More and more analysts believe the market has peaked, with rising interest rates making rental yields look unattractive.

We've been warning readers to avoid UK commercial property for some time and now it seems we are being proved right. In the past month, managers of several property funds, including New Star and Standard Life, have cut prices by up to 6.7% because more investors sold out of the funds than bought into them.

More and more analysts believe the market has peaked, with rising interest rates making rental yields look unattractive. As think tank Capital Economics notes, the yield on commercial property in May this year was actually below that paid on ten-year Government bonds. As gilts are risk-free, you would normally expect a larger return for taking the risk of investing in commercial property. Rising rates have pushed up the cost of buying property too. As the FT's Jim Pickard says, it's "nearly impossible for highly leveraged buyers to justify paying" current prices.

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