THE north west's commercial property market is on track for another record-breaking year of investment. According to the latest survey by international property advisers DTZ, over '730m was invested in the region's bricks and mortar during the first six months of the year.

The findings reveal that the region is half way to matching 2003's 12-month investment total of '1.6bn - the highest level the market had seen in seven years.

The overwhelming majority of investment activity in 2004 has been in the region's retail stock, which attracted '373m of investment - over half of total investment in the north west.

Leisure property saw the lowest level of investment of any sector, with '4m invested, an '80m decrease on 2003 and the lowest seen in the last seven years.

For the first time since 1997, industrial property has seen more investment than offices, with '172m invested, against '171m in office stock.

The current spread of investment mirrors last year's figures, which saw a total of '886m invested in retail. Private property vehicles accounted for '293m of the total investment in the region - nearly five times the '59m invested by institutions.

The north west accounted for 64 per cent of the total invested across the north. Colin Thomasson, investment director at DTZ in the north west, said: "Last year saw the highest level of commercial property investment for the last five years and this research indicates that 2004 is set to be just as strong.

"Despite concerns over rising interest rates, consumer spending is still at a high level and driving activity in the retail and logistics sectors."

"An improvement in rental growth, and the re-emergence of occupiers taking space, is improving investor confidence in the future performance from office investments and we expect demand for office assets to grow during the remainder of 2004."

"Fund managers remain confident in the sector and anticipate property to continue outperforming other asset classes. There is also increasing activity from indirect real estate vehicles and the improvement in leasing markets is expected to drive continued interest from the foreign investor market." Tweet