London office market ''still robust - commercial mortgages

11 September 2007

The London office market is still robust despite reports of a slowdown, leading property firm Minerva has said.

Speaking as the firm announced that it had made a pretax profit of £16.3 million, Minerva officials said that it was too soon to understand what the effects of financial market problems would be on the wider property sector.

The company added that it had not yet seen a reduction in demand for property, and that, like many of those with commercial mortgages, it was focusing on the prime London market.

"So far what we haven''t seen is a significant diminution in stated demand or what we know to be stated demand," commented Minerva chief executive Salmaan Hasan in a conference call with journalists.

"London proves to be a very resilient market, we still see a lot of inward investment," Mr Hasan added.

Strong performance in the City of London property market has also helped Apex Hotels boost its turnover by 28 per cent year on year, it was revealed earlier this week.