Property portfolio performance hailed - commercial mortgages

13 February 2008

Property Investment firm Liberty International has announced that its portfolio has continued to perform well despite the recent credit crunch.

The firm saw a 7.7 per cent drop in net asset value in the last quarter of 2007 but saw its portfolio - made up mainly of prime shopping centre sites - outperform those of its rivals, Propertyweek.com reports.

It outperformed the likes of British Land, whose Meadowhall Centre in Sheffield was unable to match the showing of Liberty''s Lakeside centre in Thurrock, the Gateshead MetroCentre or Braehead in Glasgow.

Commenting on the performance of the Liberty portfolio, chief executive David Fischel said: "If you look at our centres they are more than 97 per cent full and have proved resilient in terms of income and value."

Those looking to take out commercial mortgages may consider commercial retail property to be a good option at present.

New figures from the British Retail Consortium show that the three month trend of retail sales growth was up to 1.5 per cent in January, compared with 0.8 per cent in December for like-for-like sales.