Latest Insurance News
Commercial property insurance customers 'turning to distressed buildings'
26 Nov 2009
Written by Jonathan Walker
Commercial property insurance customers are increasingly turning towards distressed property as a means of expanding their portfolios, according to a new study.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors report shows a marked increase in distressed sales in the last three months, triggered mainly by the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.
According to the figures, 80 per cent of surveyed countries saw a rise in distressed sales in the commercial property market in the third quarter of the year, compared to the previous three months.
Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics, said it is "pretty easy" for commercial property insurance customers to pick up distressed housing at the moment.
"We only started seeing major distress in commercial property after Lehman [Brothers] went down. It makes a lot of sense that up until this point there hasn't been much distressed property trading - to the dismay of many investors," he explained.
