A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Irish property in UK worth up to €17bn

Irish investors own commercial property in the UK to a value of €17 billion, according to Standard Life Investments.

Standard Life is tipping British office properties to outperform this year as a result of improving employment trends, particularly in central London.

James Rushworth, who manages Standard Life's UK commercial property fund, is predicting an overall 15 per cent return for the UK property market in 2006.

"There are proven links between an improving stock market, increased merger and acquisition activity and subsequent increased demand for office space - all of which prevail in the UK currently," he said.

First Active offers Elevator account

First Active is offering a new edition of its Elevator deposit account, which pays a fixed interest rate that increases for each additional year that people save.

The annual interest rate starts at 3.3 per cent in the first year and climbs gradually to 4.2 per cent in the final year of the five-year savings term. Interest is locked in every six months and the money can be accessed at any time.

A sum of €10,000 will grow to €11,830 after five years. The minimum investment is €5,000 and the maximum is €400,000.

Adults divided on inheritance issues

Only half of Irish adults view their home as an inheritance for their children or other family members, according to a new survey by Seniors Money.

The 18-24 age group was most likely to feel that the home should be retained as an inheritance for them.

Over 55s were mostly likely to regard the home as "a financial asset that they could tap into if they needed to raise funds", said Seniors Money, which provides loans secured on property to older people where no repayments have to be made until after they die or leave the house.

Ulster Bank creates new bond

Ulster Bank has launched a new bond where the performance is linked to shares chosen by analysts on financial news service Bloomberg.

The returns from the Secure Preference Bond are linked to the 25 of the largest global stocks, of which five are chosen based on the number of "buy" ratings by analysts on Bloomberg. There is a bonus of 0.25 per cent of the initial capital for people who invest before March 31st.

The bond has a term of either three-and-a-half or five years, with the returns capped at either 30 per cent or 55 per cent gross. The minimum investment is €3,500.

B of I to pay student rents

Bank of Ireland is to pay a year's rent for 30 of its student customers up to a value of €4,000 each.

The bank said the Live Rent Free promotion was an initiative it had developed to help students financially as they start their third-level education.

Rent is the single biggest expense facing the majority of students in Ireland, amounting to over 40 per cent of a total estimated cost of living of around €6,300 for the nine-month academic year.