Total UK commercial property returns increased from 0.5% in March to 0.6% in April, according to the latest CBRE UK monthly index.

The annual return also picked up to 3.1% for the year to April 2013. However, capital values remained flat, and have declined by 2.8% over the course of the past 12 months.

All offices total return increased to 0.5% in April, while capital values remained at the level recorded in March.

The biggest impact on performance was Midtown offices, which recorded a total return of 0.9% and capital value growth of 0.5%.

Significantly, outer London/M25 offices recorded small but positive capital value growth, the first positive monthly capital value growth in this segment of the market since August 2011.

The total return for the retail sector picked up to 0.6% in April. Capital values remained broadly stable with a small increase of 0.1%.

All Property rental growth remained flat for the fourth consecutive month. Central London offices continued to see increasing rental values, with City office rental value growth of 0.3% and 0.1% for West End offices. Offices in the rest of the UK struggled, with rents dropping by 0.2%.

CBRE research analyst Aleksandra Starczynska said: "The performance gap between central London offices and other parts of the UK market has started to close over the last couple of months.

"Although it remains the best performing market segment, both rental and capital value growth has been slowing for central London offices and at the same time performance in other segments has been improving."