Eight out of ten of the world’s biggest banks are refusing to lend on any European commercial property deals between now and Christmas as the credit crunch pulls the rug from under a slew of multibillion pound investment deals.

The new findings from a Bank of Scotland-backed cash-rich investment fund is bound to undermine attempts this autumn by British Land, the FTSE 100 developer, to sell this up to a three-quarter stake in its Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield for about £1.2 billion.

A string of postponed or repriced property sales since the start of August have cast doubts about the price British Land first wanted to achieve for Meadowhall since it put the shopping centre on market in the early summer with the entire site valued at £1.7 billion.

Investors may now wonder whether the sale will go ahead at all after the latest findings from aAIM Group, the property fund backed by BoS and a host of celebrities and wealthy footballers including pop impressario Simon Cowell and Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs.

Robert Whitton, chief executive of aAIM, conducted an informal poll of big bank lenders today whilst attending the CB Richard Ellis European investment conference in Geneva, an annual event attended by about 130 of the world’s biggest property investors and bank lenders.

Mr Whitton said: “The message from most banks was they are out of the market for at least three months. Whilst they are still supporting existing clients, the door is largely closed to newcomers. Loans to values are down to very conservative levels and margins and fees are much higher. Basically 70 per cent to 80 per cent of banks are not open for business.”

British Land put Meadowhall up for sale in the early summer with the entire site valued at £1.7 billion and said it hoped to conclude a deal by the autumn.

But doubts about British Land’s ability to obtain the price it originally wanted surfaced in August after first July’s flooding closed the centre for a week, then the start of what turned into a global credit crunch caused a string of high-profile property sales to be postponed.

British Land revised down its value of Meadowhall to £1.64 billion in August to include the cost needed to pay for flood repair improvements and general upkeep.

But over the past two weeks Savills, the property agent, predicted prices of British commercial property could fall by up to 10 per cent over the coming months.

That prediction may have come true already judging by troubles affecting property deals under negotiation in the UK and the rest of Europe.

Delek Global Reat Estate, the AIM-listed owner of hotels and NCP car parks, is currently trying to cut the asking price of a £1.4 billion portfolio of Swiss property it agreed to buy on July 31.

Delek Global and two Israeli property firm partners said they wanted to buy 88 shops let to Jelmoli, the Swiss retailer.

Last week, however, Jelmoli said in a statement: “The purchasers have approached Jelmolio this week and asked for a renegotiation of the purchase price, citing in particular the current conditions in the international credit markets.” Jelmoli is understood to be ready to resort to litigation to enforce the sale contract.

Last week Marylebone Warwick Balfour, the FTSE 250 property company was forced to delay the second attempted sale of its MalMaison and Hotel du Vin hotel chains, blaming the credit crunch.

MWB had put a £700 million price tag on the hotels. Earlier this year it tried to sell the underlying property assets of the two chains to Vector Hospitality, the real estate investment trust. The deal fell through in June when lack of investor appetite resulted in Vector’s proposed £2 billion flotation being dropped.

Last month Hammerson, the FTSE 100 offices-to-shops developer, pulled the £101 million sale of its Forum Steglitz shopping centre in Berlin after a German fund manager pulled out of exclusive talks.

The credit cruch has also affected the wider European equity markets for property companies.

Strabag, Eastern Europe’s largest constuction company, in which the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska owns a 25 per cent stake, may postpone its 1 billion euro share offering planned for next month

Strabag had planned to start a ten-day bookbuilding exercise on October 8 to price its share offering in time for a flotation on the Vienna Stock Exchange on October 19. But this week Hans Peter Haselsteiner, chief executive of Strabag, said that while its IPO plans were “on track” the flotation could be postponed to “at least” next spring if the market climate was to weaken.

Mr Haselsteiner was addressing a meeting of the Russian investment forum in Sotschi, according to a report in Austrian paper Der Standard.

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