US property collapse hit Church of England coffers

The ongoing real estate crisis in the USA has claimed another victim - The Church of England.

In the summer of 2007, when everything was right in the world of USA real estate, the finance department of the Church of England (C of E) invested £40 million in two housing estates along the East River in New York's Manhattan district.

Fast forward eighteen months and the worldwide credit crisis attacks the world's property markets. Development projects thrughout the globe stalled and the US real estate market crashed. The property deal invested in by the C of E, believed to be the largest residential property deal in US history, has gone into receivership.

The housing complexes were purchased by a syndicate headed by USA real estate group Tishman Speyer for more than $5 billion four years ago but today are valued at less than $2 billion.

A spokesman for the Church said lessons would be learnt from the deal.