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In Q2, London received $5.7 billion in commercial investment, with 75% of it coming from overseas.

Cushman & Wakefield, the world's largest privately-owned real estate services company, reported £3.38 billion in central London commercial property sales in the second quarter of 2014, bringing the overall investment in the first half of 2014 to £7.6 billion. For sale

The figure for Q2 2014 is down from £4.28 billion in the previous quarter, which was the highest amount of Q1 central London expenditure ever reported - but the £1.7 billion St Martins purchase of More London inflated the figure substantially.

In Q2 2014, foreign capital once again dominated the majority of transactions, accounting for 75% of total value.

Highlights from the C&W Report Include the following:

In the second quarter of 2014, £3.38 billion ($5.7 billion USD) was invested in central London commercial real estate.

West End deal value hits £929 million in Q2 2014.

In the second quarter of 2014, City & Docklands transactions totaled £2.45 billion.

In the first half of 2014, Chinese investors accounted for more than 20% of City & Docklands transactions.

 

Chinese investors completed more than a fifth of commercial property investment in the City & Docklands in the first half of this year.

Docklands & City

In Q2 2014, gross investment volume in the City & Docklands reached £2.45 billion, with 27 big transactions. Four investment deals totaling more than £200 million were concluded out of this amount.

In terms of transactional investment value, overseas investors remain the most involved, increasing from 76 percent in Q1 to 78 percent in Q2 2014. Despite the fact that UK buyers accounted for 16 of the deals in Q2 2014, this reflected just 22% of total deal value, and the remaining 11 transactions by international investors had much larger average transaction sizes. The average transaction size for UK buyers was £32.9 million, while the average for overseas buyers was £174.5 million.

In Q2 2014, Chinese capital accounted for 45 percent of City & Docklands deals, which is significantly higher than the 3% of Chinese investment seen in the first quarter of this year.

Canary Wharf Group sold 10 Upper Bank Street, E14, to a consortium 70 percent owned by China Life, 20 percent owned by Qatar, and ten percent owned by Canary Wharf Group for £795 million.

With approximately 20 transactions currently under offer or traded, the third quarter of 2014 is expected to continue at high volume levels, potentially generating an additional £1 billion in turnover.

The top five deals in the City & Docklands for Q2 2014 totaled £1.72 billion, or 70% of overall investment.

"At the end of Q2 2014, there had been just under £6 billion of property transactions completed this year," Bill Tyser of Cushman & Wakefield's City investment team said, "with roughly another £500 million of transactions currently under offer."

The demand for foreign investors to join the London commercial property market continues to grow, with Chinese investors accounting for more than a fifth of all transactions in the City & Docklands so far this year. As previously stated, the greater the financial and geopolitical risk in the world, the greater the urge to invest in London markets, and there is no indication that this trend will slow down at this time " The current sale of HSBC Tower for £1.1 billion is the most expensive property on the market, with a total value of £3 billion. The Gherkin, 30 St Mary Axe, for example, is expected to offer a range of significant investment opportunities in the second half of the year. Overall, 2014 appears to be on track to be another year of high volume turnover, if not a record-breaking year."

The West End is a district in London.

In the second quarter of 2014, investment volume in London's West End totaled £929 million, with an average lot size of £40.4 million. Although this quarter's turnover is lower than the previous quarter and Q2 2013, this is due to a stock shortage rather than a lack of demand. Furthermore, over £1 billion of stock has come to market in the last two months, so we expect increased investor interest in the second half of 2014.

This quarter's notable transactions include Meyer Bergman's £112 million acquisition of Bond Street House, 15-16 New Bond Street; Triangle's £212.5 million purchase of the Holborn Links Estate; and Scottish Widows' £33.7 million purchase of 110 Park Street, showing a net initial yield of 3.25 percent.

Buyers from the Middle East, Continental Europe, the Far East, and North America accounted for 69 percent of the purchase amount in Q2 2014, with buyers from the Middle East, Continental Europe, the Far East, and North America.

Cushman & Wakefield's West End investment team's Mike Tremayne said, "While limited stock availability resulted in a slight decrease in turnover in Q2 2014, we expect high turnover activity in the second half of 2014. The West End investment market's demand and capital weight are as high as ever, and with the optimistic rental growth story now becoming a fact, we see no signs of this dynamic market waning."

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