COMMERCIAL property agents have been left cold by the measures in the pre-budget report designed to offer a helping hand to landlords and developers.

Under pressure from property professionals, developers and businesses, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that properties with a rateable value of less than £15,000 would be temporarily exempt from liability for empty property rates from April next year.

Tim Bull, at Derby commercial property agent Jeffery Jones, said: "It is similar to raising the threshold for stamp duty on residential properties in that it won't make much of a difference to the commercial property market. There's apathy across the board with buyers. The measures are not enough to get the market started but it will pick up again after the Christmas period and there will be more activity in the new year."

Mr Darling has claimed that 70% of empty commercial buildings in the UK will qualify for exemption, although agents are sceptical about this statistic. Mr Bull believes that 50% is a more realistic figure.

Jonathan Sayer, of Derby-based Fisher Hargreaves Proctor, said: "The pre-budget report states that 70% of property is covered and, while by volume this is possibly the case, it is unlikely to cover the 70% of property in value terms.

"Therefore, there's little assistance to the speculative developers and large landowners, who will continue to be bearing the costs of empty rates in a market which is experiencing a lack of occupier confidence

"The temporary raising of the threshold for empty property rates relief will create a saving for many landlords. However, these effects are unlikely to be felt throughout the property market."

A rateable value of £15,000 equates to an annual rental value of around £20,000, which means that small city-centre retail units will be exempt, as will older industrial units up to around 4,000 sq ft.

Modern hybrid-type industrial units, which have made up a large part of speculative developments in recent years, are unlikely to be exempt.

Philip Hickman, of Rushton Hickman, estimates that the Treasury stands to take around £1m a year in empty property rates from the Burton area alone this year. He said: "The vast majority of this is being paid by owners of big sheds and the new measures will not affect this figure at all and will do nothing to encourage speculative development because there's no confidence that either developers or tenants will be able to get bank loans.

"It will help owners of small properties but to help out commercial landlords with traditional sites, premises of around 50,000 sq ft with a rateable value of up to £200,000 would have to be exempt from empty property rates."