News in Brief: Back into property

BRITAIN's financial institutions are preparing to fund speculative property development for the first time in several years.

One in four pension funds and insurance companies questioned for the quarterly Gallup-CSW (Chartered Surveyors Week) survey were expecting to 'embark on speculative development' - building without committed tenants - over the next year.

The finding is striking because most of the institutions polled have no speculative developments under way at the moment and have not started any since the recession began three years ago.