Commercial mortgage holders with retail property 'seeing higher demand'

30 March 2011

Written by Steve Olejnik

Commercial mortgage holders who own retail property may be seeing an increase in occupier demand, according to one firm.

Gerald Eve's latest Prime Logistics Bulletin, reported on by Property Week, found that tenants in this sector rented out more space last year than in over a decade.

This upsurge in demand is leading a tentative recovery in some kinds of commercial property.

Retail occupiers took up 15.7 million square feet of real estate in 2010, while the total amount of room rented in the final quarter of last year was ten million square feet.

This is the highest take-up level seen since the last three months of 2007 and head of UK logistics at Gerald Eve Richard Ludlow was quoted by the news provider as saying certain types of property were performing well.

"Good quality big sheds continue to reap the benefit of the recent upsurge in occupier demand, which in turn has reduced the supply of prime sheds on the market," he said.

Commercial mortgage holders may be hoping that the government's tax on empty real estate will be scrapped, as chief executive of the British Property Federation Liz Peace recently called this duty the "enemy of enterprise".

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