Land Securities, the UK’s largest property company by market value, has warned that hopes for a recovery in the battered real estate sector appear premature after it revealed a record £4.7bn fall in the value of its estate.

The group reported a pre-tax loss of £4.8bn, the largest ever in the sector, as a result of the fall in value of its properties in the year to March when the real estate market was in its worst slump in recent history. Losses in 2008 were £988m.