UK commercial property values fell by a record amount in 2008, according to Investment Property Databank (IPD).
Its UK Quarterly Property Index showed commercial properties lost 26.4% of their value last year - the most since records began in 1987.
The values of office buildings, shops and warehouses are now broadly in line with December 2001 levels.
Five and a half years of growth has been lost in 18 months of successive falls, IPD said.
Values were down 14.4% in the last three months of the year compared to the previous quarter, another record fall.
"In nominal terms, we have never tracked a year with this level of capital decline," said Ian Cullen, IPD's co-founding director.
Property profit
Total returns on investments also fell by 13% in the final quarter compared to the three months to the end of September, and by 22.1% over the year.
Many investors withdrew from commercial property last year, prompting some funds to introduce delays on when people can get their money.
Last year HSBC made a £250m ($355m) profit when it bought back its London headquarters from a Spanish property company.
It had sold its Canary Wharf tower to Metrovacesa for £1.1bn in April 2007, at the peak of Britain's property boom, in a sale-and-leaseback deal.
It then bought it back for about £838m in November 2008, representing a 24% fall in its value over the 18 months.
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