Commercial real estate rise hailed - commercial mortgages

Published: 23.4.2008

New figures from the British Bankers Association (BBA) for Commercial Mortgages have been hailed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) as good news.

BBA statistics for lending in March, published today, indicated that this form of lending rose by £14.7 billion in the month.

This compares favourably with the average for the last six months, which stood at £13.1 billion.

In annual terms the rate of lending growth was 21.3 per cent.

Rics said the news was particularly welcome, not least as lending in many other sectors had not enjoyed a good month.

The organisation''s chief economist Simon Rubinsohn stated: "A more encouraging development evident in today''s data is the pick up in lending to the commercial real estate industry which having fallen sharply around the turn of the year posted a smart rebound in March."

In its statistical digest, the BBA stated that lending to real estate made up the largest part of the volume of loans taken up by businesses.

This increased by £2.9 billion in the month, with the previous six-monthly average being £2.3 billion.