Advisers unsure over new property investment proposals

Financial professionals are deeply divided over whether or not struggling homeowners should sell their properties on to investment funds.

Real estate specialists Reita conducted a poll of advisers with the help of NMG last month - and found that 39 per cent believed clients ’should be interested’ in making the sales.

However, 43 per cent of the professionals were found to take the opposite view, while the remainder said they did not know either way.

Reita conducted its poll in the wake of the announcement of new government plans to make it easier for private wealth funds to take on rental properties to generate returns for investors.

Large pension funds and investment funds run by offshore private banking banks therefore stand to benefit from the new rules.

Philip Fry, programme director of Reita, commented: ’The divided response from professional advisers on the topic of buy to let and residential property investment generally is perhaps understandable given the lack of clarity and consensus in recent research reports on the state of the UK housing market.

’Indeed, financial markets in general are mostly viewed with mixed opinion in this current climate of volatility.’

The advisers were also revealed to be strikingly downbeat on the prospects of the UK commercial property sector, which has been hit hard by the credit crunch.

In all, 36 per cent said that they did not expect a recovery in the market until after 2010.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19152962-ADNFCR