Songbird Estates, the majority owner of London's financial district Canary Wharf, has conjured up a 27% rise in net assets in the six months to December, showing the marked recovery in the property sector, which has been badly hit by the banking crisis.

Songbird now has net assets worth £1.2bn (€1.33bn), or 168p a share, following the raising of equity and debt totalling £1bn in October. The average yield, or rental return from its offices, narrowed to 6.3%, roughly 100 basis points less than last June, and a similar yield was achieved in its retail properties. This helped push up the value of Songbird's portfolio by 7.6%, to £5bn.