Look north for property prospects, says expert - commercial mortgages

05 March 2008

In news which may interest those looking for commercial mortgages, an expert on the property industry in Scotland has said it has avoided the worst of the commercial property downturn because of the increased amount of business being carried out there.

Steve Georgiou, joint director of property magazine publisher Property Executive, stated that many southern English investors were coming up to Scotland at present.

He suggested that one major advantage Scotland had was that outside of central Glasgow and Edinburgh there was plenty of space on which to develop new premises.

"Land means that, with planning permission, you can potentially do business. That''s probably the biggest factor," he commented.

Mr Georgiou added that northern England was also doing better than London, partly because it had close commercial links with Scotland.

Property investment awareness campaign Reita has launched its first quarterly property perspective in which it suggested the market will soon stabilise and then start growing again in the second half of this year.