Savers need a safe shelter for cash in the next few months as Chancellor Gordon Brown faces a possible £11 billion hole in his spending plans by next March's Budget.

Building society interest rates are shrinking below one per cent, shares are too risky for "amateurs" and Premium Bond prizes get meaner by the month.

The obvious refuge is safe and solid property - not flats and houses, where buy-to-let investors fear over-supply, but shops, offices and warehouses with tenants on 25-year leases usually committed to upwards-only rent reviews.

Surely office blocks bulging with civil servants or plum High Street premises occupied by a major bank will hold their value and always pay a good income - whatever economic horrors lie in store?

Allied Dunbar pioneered commercial property funds and the concept really took off with Eagle Star's unitised property fund, which was launched in 1991.

Today it holds 189 properties, with 1,300 tenants paying rent, in an £803 million fund.

The Eagle Star III fund, projecting 7.3 per cent annual net income on a minimum £5,000 investment, is now with financial advisors.

Investing in property became simpler in March when Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP)

amassed a portfolio of 68 properties - half of them shops, the rest offices and industrial - in an investment company trading as an investment trust.

It enables savers to sink their £7,000 a year Isa allowance directly into commercial property.

Launched on March 20 as a £150 million property company, the UK Balanced Property Trust started off at £1 a share, touched 110p and currently trades at 99.5p.

SWIP director David Mitchell promises seven per cent annual dividends "for the foreseeable future" and possibly more in due course.

SWIP says its share price outperformed FTSE All-Share in its first six months by 22 per cent. Yet it actually held its original value while the rest collapsed.

Mitchell says: "We are a very transparent company with lower management charges than most quoted property companies.

"With further turmoil in the markets, our share price will rise as we hold the yield or increase it."

SWIP succeeded so well that rivals are keen to get in on the act. Scottish Mutual, the pension and investment brand of Abbey National, is launching a ten-year commercial property plan for lump sum investments.

It will mature in January 2013 and investors get £1 shares for 99.5p if they apply before November 22.

Money invested with Scottish Mutual to buy shares can be Isas or Pep/Isa transfers with a minimum overall investment of £7,000 or part of as self-invested personal pension plan.

The fund will be geared up with long-term borrowings from Abbey National treasury services and the portfolio will mix retail, office and industrial properties.

Investors can either choose the income fund, promising a seven per cent gross annual income for the first five years, or a growth fund which will reinvest dividends.

After five years, Scottish Mutual may return - with no specific promise - 102p a share to income fund shareholders and 140p to growth fund shareholders.

According to the magazine Property Week, Morley Fund Management could enter the sector within weeks. Its portfolio could include shopping centres, industrial buildings and even care homes.

Close Brothers is ready to launch Close High Income Properties, a £100 million quoted investment company expected to yield more than seven per cent net for Isa investors.

More than 3,500 shareholders could be on board by the end of November and the portfolio already holds industrial buildings in the Midlands, North and North-East.

Property Week believes the funds have a big future - not least because investors buying offices or industrial buildings in the auction room are lucky to see a return of four per cent.

Frank Cochran, of FSC Investments, said: "Property funds are looking an excellent investment in these volatile times. Where else can you get a return of 7.5 per cent?

"Small investors are putting in a few thousand pounds and we have big investors putting in half a million apiece.

"These products have low volatility, an excellent track record and tangible assets.

"Investors are confident they will not be at the mercy of market fluctuations if interest rates rise and the income stream looks strong because most leases run for 25 years."

In a severe recession there is always a risk rents could fall and investors could see their income coming under threat.

Office rents are falling in some areas of central London, but commercial property nationwide looks a safer bet than most other investment options.