LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. funds giant BlackRock will defer third-quarter redemptions from its BlackRock UK Property Fund following a heightened level of redemption requests, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The fund had 3.5 billion pounds ($4.22 billion) in assets under management as of October.

($1 = 0.8295 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Elizabeth Howcroft, editing by Kirstin Ridley)