U.K. Commercial Property Values Decline for the First Time Since July 2009 - Bloomberg

U.K. Commercial Property Values Decline for the First Time Since July 2009 - Bloomberg

U.K. commercial property values declined for the first time since July 2009 as the European sovereign debt crisis and concern about a possible U.K. recession hurt retail assets.

The average value of stores, offices and warehouses declined 0.02 percent in November from a month earlier, Investment Property Databank Ltd. said today on its website. Retail values led the decline, falling 0.1 percent.

Michael Marx, chief executive officer for Development Securities Plc, predicated that values will fall by 2.5 percent to 5 percent in the first half of next year. A possible improvement in the second half could leave values little changed to 2.5 percent down for 2012, he said by e-mail.

Values had risen 17.8 percent in 27 months of continuous growth after falling 44.1 percent from June 2007 to June 2009, according to IPD. London is still seeing positive capital growth, but this is being outweighed by poor regional performances, IPD said.