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Michael Morris said because the majority of UK leases had an "upwards only rent review clause", investors were protected from falling rents for the duration of a lease, even in a market downturn.

"This is a key feature of the UK property market. In a downturn, while rental growth may ease or turn negative, the five-yearly upwards-only review structure is still able to capture an element of historic rental growth," Mr Morris said.

In the downturn of the early 1990s, property income continued to grow even though rents and capital values were falling, the manager said.

"One needs to mitigate general vacancies and have very limited exposure to development. In the current environment of a weakening economy, it is essential to find assets that are let to tenants with a strong covenant and good financial background."

He said the likelihood of tenant default was expected to increase as economic growth slowed, so it was important to minimise this risk in this manner.

As falling values push yields up and investors look for a high income return, the period following a fall offered a strong opportunity to find good value, Mr Morris said.

"We believe in opportunities where the income return is high, but where there is still income security, such as the industrial sector and even some regional office markets with limited development pipelines and low occupier exposure to financial services," he explained.

Alternative sectors such as healthcare and infrastructure were driven by factors other than the economy and as such should hold up well during a period of weak growth, Mr Morris said.