(Reuters) - UK commercial property values inched ahead in October, a closely-watched index showed on Monday, breaking a downward trend since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June.
Overall property values for UK commercial assets rose 0.07 percent in October, following gradually decreasing declines between July and September, the IPD real estate index, compiled by MSCI (N:MSCI), showed.
Britain's 900 billion pound commercial property market was one of the biggest victims of the turmoil that followed the referendum and at one point commercial property funds worth over 18 billion pounds were suspended.
However, investor appetite has since started to return as several commercial property funds have reopened, developers have committed to projects initially put on hold and property valuers have dropped Brexit uncertainty clauses from valuation reports.
Britain's largest listed property developers and largest listed office landlords, Land Securities (L:LAND) and British Land (L:BLND) are set to report results on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
The October IPD index by MSCI showed a stabilisation of value for UK offices, which felt the largest jolt of any UK commercial property asset class after the Brexit vote on concerns that financial firms would move jobs to Europe, hurting rental demand.
Capital values in offices grew 0.015 percent in October compared with a fall of 0.242 percent in September, data showed. Offices in the City of London showed 0.162 percent growth in October.
The IPD real estate index is one of Britain's most widely watched commercial real estate data surveys, and tracks about 10.5 percent of the professionally managed UK property across all sectors, including retail and office property.
The October index was based on data from 3,180 property investments with a total capital value of 45.1 billion pounds, MSCI said.