The current financial crisis has been the result of a nervousness of the banks to lend to each other and to the public. This has been a response to the relaxed lending that took place, partially to a new demographic of borrowers, known as 'NINJAs': those with no income, no job and no assets. Ironically, the first to suffer as a result, have been the banks themselves. Nowhere has this been more evident than in London - especially in the City - where banks have streamlined, downsized and, in some cases collapsed.

The result for the commercial property market has been an influx of office space. According to a leading firm of property advisors, this influx is set to continue well into 2009 and then die off. In rental terms, it means that prospective tenants can expect to be able to take advantage of low rents and landlord incentives until at least 2010 and more than likely stretching in to 2011. In London's West End, incentives have tripled in length over the last year, offering benefits such as rent-free periods for contracts in excess of 2 years..

For tenants looking to relocate or expand their business, the opportunities offered to them by the credit crunch cannot be bettered. Commercial estate agents in London are now promoting top-end serviced office space at a fraction of what it would have cost 18 months ago. Serviced office space offers many benefits that a standard office simply cannot provide and is already becoming extremely popular with international businesses looking to take advantage of the weakness of the pound.

Serviced office space in London offers great flexibility to prospective tenants; furniture, phone-lines and Internet access are often included, making it easy for a business to relocate and practically continue business as soon as the office is occupied. The defined costs of serviced office space are especially attractive, especially in the current financial climate, offering new and established businesses the chance to make considerable savings as all the start-up costs are wrapped up into one. As a result, bookkeeping and budgeting are made much easier and, using the advice of commercial estate agents in London, can be incredibly cost-effective.

The potential is that the prices of serviced office space will be driven down even further. With corporations and businesses releasing more and more commercial office space into the market, landlords have few options left to them. As it stands, they can both lower their rents and offer generous incentive-packages or risk seeing their premises remain unused and simply cost them money. In addition, many office projects that were started years ago are now nearing completion, which means more office space will be made available.

What was once a market firmly controlled by the landlords has been transformed in to a market that strongly favours tenants; using commercial acquisition agents to add their expertise and experience, tenants are in a position where they are able to bargain and set their own terms, like never before. By taking the plunge now, many businesses can take advantage of prime serviced office space in London and the business facilities and services it can provide.

UK rental values are now at a sixteen year low after commercial property rents declined once again last month. Demand for commercial property is at an all time slump reflecting the sheer extent of the different industries affected by the recession. Many businesses are closely monitoring their outgoings and downsizing wherever possible meaning office relocations and expansions are not even being considered.

Retail commercial properties are amongst the worst affected with shop rents being cut across the UK by almost a third over the past year alone. This hasn’t been helped by the collapse of retailers such as Woolworths, MFI and Land of Leather. Rising vacancies have naturally caused a decrease in rents with retailers that are still in business seeking large discounts and generous lease terms from landlords in order to help them through these difficult times. It is not uncommon for landlords to now offer several years completely rent free in order to get retailers to sign up to longer lease deals. This is exactly what is happening in a new shopping centre development that is due to open this September in Cardiff, where Land Securities and Liberty International are offering free rent for three years to retailers.

Despite the recent negative press there is good news on the horizon with experts believing that rent decreases are likely to have reached a plateau given the rate of decline to date. There are also a number of retailers that are still looking into commercial property expansion with companies such as HMV, Primark and Dunhelm all looking to open new stores.

The UK is at the forefront of the global commercial property collapse. However, over the past six months declines in commercial property confidence have also been noted in previously unaffected countries such as Russia, UAE, Ukraine and Asia. This demonstrates the now fully global impact of the recession. Despite the fact the UK is one of the worst affected countries we are also expected to be one of the first to recover due to the speed and severity of our commercial property value declines so far. Good buying opportunities are already available for cash rich companies and retailers and businesses alike are being encouraged to take advantage of the current low rental rates as many experts believe UK rental declines have now reached a plateau.