Assured Trading: Sentiment towards the UK commercial property sector has suffered another blow after one of the country’s biggest insurers cut the valuation of its property fund by a further 10% The company had already down-valued the fund by 5% in the wake of an investor stampede to withdraw funds after the surprise Brexit vote.

L&G’s move is the latest in a slew of fund suspensions by several money managers eager to head off a rush for the exits by jittery investors concerned about the effect of Britain’s decision to leave the EU on the value of commercial real estate in the country.

Aberdeen Asset Management, Standard Life, Canada Life, Aviva, M&G (a subsidiary of Prudential) and Henderson Global Investors have suspended withdrawals from commercial property funds in recent days.

“The fund managers have a certain amount of liquidity with which to meet redemptions but the sheer volume of requests for withdrawals has caught them on the hop,” said Kit Morton, chief economist at Assured Trading.

There are elevated fears that the Brexit vote will spur many global corporations to relocate their headquarters to other countries in the EU but there are growing concerns that residential home prices, too, may be affected by the fallout from the Leave vote.

“Britain’s housing market is grossly over-valued for a very long time and, while there don’t appear to be any immediate adverse effects on it at the moment from the Brexit vote, Assured Trading will certainly be keeping a close eye on developments in the coming months,” said Morton.

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