Investors who have money in Aviva’s property fund are now able to withdraw money from the frozen funds. Nearly 250,000 investors were told in January 2009 that they would have to wait for up to 6 months to withdraw their investments.

Aviva, previously known as Norwich Union said the difficulties in selling the “bricks and mortar” assets have eased since the start of the year.

At the time the withdrawal restriction was put into place, the percentage of cash held by the fund had dropped from 7% to 3.1%. It has since increased to 12%.

"With improving conditions in the commercial property market, Aviva is now confident that current cash levels are sustainable”.

 This has helped the fund manager to lift the restriction placed on investors. The fund has halved in size since December 2007, due to investors withdrawing funds, combined with the fall in commercial property prices.