Insurance News Archive

Commercial property insurance: UK market is 'patchy'

Posted by Dan Winters

Commercial property insurance customers may be interested to learn that the UK's commercial property sector has been described as "patchy" and, aside from the London office sector, has "weaknesses", according to one expert.

Andrew Burrell, partner in research at King Sturge, suggested that commercial property in the capital should perform "quite well" in the coming months, but that the overall market had been hit by uncertainty over the economy.

The latest research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found that the commercial property markets in UK and the eurozone were being outperformed by South America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

More than 85 per cent of surveyors had reported a rise in occupier demand in Brazil, whereas the UK figure fell to minus four per cent.

Mr Burrell said that the European economy had been "hit" in 2010, adding that the Rics statistics appeared to generally follow the financial prospects of each region.

27 Jul 2010