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Time to get back into commercial property? - Times

JAMES CAAN, one of the Dragons’ Den judges, is to launch a commercial property fund with ING Direct next month on the back of growing confidence in the sector.

Caan is the latest high-profile investor to announce an interest, following Nick Leslau, who appeared in Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire last year, and Shaf Rasul, another Dragon who appears in the online version of the show.

It comes as UK commercial property has registered its first growth in more than two years, climbing 0.2% in August, according to the Investment Property Databank index. It follows a near-50% drop since the 2007 peak.

Meanwhile, yields on commercial property (rental income as a proportion of the price) have risen over that time from 4.6% to about 7.9% — more than 10 times the typical easy-access savings account at 0.78% and more than double the yield on 10-year gilts (government bonds) of 3.5%