St James’s Place and Columbia Threadneedle have become the first asset managers to unfreeze their property funds.

Funds holding nearly £12bn of real estate halted trading in March as the pandemic meant that assets could not be accurately valued.

Yesterday the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors recommended a removal of warnings of “material valuation uncertainty” on almost all UK commercial property.

St James’s Place’s three property funds hold around £3.6bn of assets, while Columbia Threadneedle said that it would lift the temporary dealing suspension on its £1bn Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Investment Fund on 17 September.

Others have said their funds will remain frozen. Janus Henderson said that it would not lift the suspension on its £2bn property fund so that it could focus on raising more cash. The £2.2bn M&G Property Portfolio, which was forced to suspend before the pandemic owing to poor performance and a lack of liquidity, is yet to reopen