CHARTERED surveyors practising in the commercial sector are more optimistic than at any time for two years.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says the office, retail and industrial property markets are advancing on the tide of economic improvement.

A spokesman said confidence was on the increase across all sectors.

The latest quarterly survey shows that the picture for retail premises has been improved by greater consumer confidence and spending.

But chartered surveyors remain concerned about the effect of out-of-town shopping mall developments which continue to dent the fortunes of local shopping centres.

Towns hit include those in north-west Kent near to the Bluewater Park scheme and Bristol and Newport, near to the Cribbs Causeway development.

Bolton is already fighting back against the threat from the Trafford Centre project at Dumplington, due to open in 1998.

The RICS says the office sector has seen increased levels of confidence with optimism growing in Greater London and the South-east, East Anglia, Wales, the South-west, the North-west and the Midlands.

But the picture is less promising in the North and Yorkshire and Humberside, where significant numbers of respondants to the survey report that confidence is on the wane.

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