Edinburgh rental growth "sluggish" - commercial mortgages

05 February 2007

The commercial property market in Edinburgh has performed poorly compared with a number of other cities within the UK, according to one property expert.

A new report by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that the city slipped from tenth to 12th in a list of the top European cities for commercial property investment, the Scotsman reports.

Alasdair Humphrey of Jones Lang LaSalle told the newspaper that investors in the city, such as those with commercial mortgages, may have seen a "tricky" occupational market and "sluggish" levels of rental growth.

"But you could also argue that other places in the UK, such as Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, have seen some very good rental growth and therefore Edinburgh, relatively speaking, now looks reasonable value," he remarked.

In related news, the Investment Property Databank recently reported that commercial property provided a 17.9 per cent return in 2006.