Real estate partners are hoping for an upturn in market activity as a result of increased investment by insurance groups, according to new research highlighting the emergence of new lenders in the real estate sector.

The research, carried out by DLA Piper in conjunction with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, predicts insurance groups will increase their commercial real estate (CRE) lending by £28.1bn to £52bn by 2017, with annual lending by such groups expected to reach £5.5bn over the same period.

This could help fill the void left by banks, which have decreased their CRE
lending since the start of the financial crisis.

DLA real estate finance chief Toby Barker said: "Over the last 12-14 months we have definitely seen an increase in lending from insurance groups.

"This is in part due to the funding gap created by banks looking to deleverage and reduce their exposure to the real estate debt market."

Recent examples of insurance groups moving into the lending market include Aviva, which provided three loans of more than £100m to self-storage company Big Yellow, South African investor Nathan Kirsh and West End property owner Shaftesbury.

Irwin Mitchell real estate head Jon Vivian commented: "I very much welcome this as a development in the real estate and real estate finance markets generally, as a lack of liquidity and available third party funding is a major obstacle to the development and improvement of market conditions in real estate."

Pinsent Masons real estate finance head Gerry Mulholland added: "The emergence of the insurers, debt funds and the debt capital markets have all gone some way to ease the tightening in the debt markets, but we shouldn't overestimate the impact this will have on the wider market."

The research was compiled from 20 in-depth interviews with a range of mid-tier and senior executives from insurance companies, market analysts, representatives of regulatory bodies and the Association of British Insurers.