Investment Property Databank is to overhaul its reporting of investment-grade returns from residential property following growing interest in the sector.
IPD will now produce the index, which shows capital growth income return and total returns of residential investments, twice-yearly instead of annually. It will also be published closer to the company’s commercial index.
End-of-year figures are currently not available until April, compared with February for the commercial index.
IPD said that publishing the data more speedily would allow investors to be more responsive to market trends, and provide more accurate data with which to trade derivatives in residential property.
IPD co-founding director Ian Cullen said that there were also plans to expand the service – which tracks around £2bn of investments held by companies including Dorrington and Grainger – compared with £130bn for the IPD Annual Index.
Half-yearly reporting will begin in 2011 following a test run this summer.
Cullen said: “Our plans are to increase the frequency and timeliness of our UK Residential Index and thereby provide investors with an authoritative benchmark index which reports full investment returns.”
