Insurers bolster property loans
The volume of new property loans in Britain is set to balloon to £50bn a year by 2016, as more insurers enter the real estate lending market, according to research by property consultancy Savills. The new loan market will rise from the £27.5bn seen last year, in large part thanks to the likes of AXA, Met Life and the Bank of China accumulating cash piles large enough to offer big loans. Savills also predicted that interest in the regions will start to return, after years of cautious real estate investors sticking to the safe haven of prime London property.