Published on : Wed, 14 Sep 2005 15:12GMT
by : David Parker

Considering the slowdown that has hit the property market, it is no surprise that the demand for commercial property in the UK has shelved, as figures suggest from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) state.

RICS published figures according to which, property sales had slipped down by 18% in the previous month against August last year. The international property market report released by RICS showed a lukewarm response for property purchases in Western Europe, whilst countries in the EU displayed a much more optimistic demand.

Milan Khatri, a prominent economist at RICS commented, “In the UK, limited availability of property has slowed growth in the market.” However, ample investments seem to be still happening in the UK, even though the market has been flagging due to the unavailability of saleable buildings.

On the contrary, demand for business property in the eastern countries like India and China seems to have survived major impediments like the crude oil price hike as well as the natural calamities of the year, on account of its continuous economic development.

Meanwhile, as North America and Japan were noted to have surging investments owing to the consistently low interest rates there, Western European markets were signalling steady demand for underlying investments, albeit UK growth was reeling under the dearth of property.