It may be tough being an office agent in the Thames Valley just now, but you will find few who envy colleagues in investment teams.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle's Western Corridor Outlook report, the number of investment transactions plummeted in the region in the first half of the year to £95m, after total transactions of £524m in 2007.

Rob Cregeen, a partner at Cushman & Wakefield, says there is little else to do but work hard to pluck out buyers and sellers.

"If you dig below the surface, there is stock and there are buyers - it is just that there is very little publicly on the market,"he says.  "It's all about picking up the phone to fund managers and seeing if you can find buyers."

Duncan Campbell at Reading based Campbell Gordon adds:

"There is a big difference between the investment and occupational sides of the business.  People are really struggling to dispose of investment and development opportunities at a reasonable level.  The market has further to fall."