Member Article

UK investors boost Leeds commercial property investment by nearly 3/4 in 2018

Investment in Leeds commercial property increased 70 per cent, to the end of Q3 in 2018, compared to the same period for the previous year.

This places Leeds within the 5 regional investment capitals outside of London

Investors, both domestic and from overseas, acquired commercial properties to the value of £688m in 2018 versus £403m in 2017 according to latest research – a near three quarters increase.

Datscha, the proptech platform which shows ultimate ownership of commercial properties, revealed the data in their transactions module which indicates deals worth more than £3million each – those deemed of economic significance to the market. Datscha has further been able to corroborate its research by uncovering portfolio deals matched with latest Land Registry data – using the period from January 2017 to September 2017 against the same period in 2018.

Global versus local investors - and the largest single deal

UK investors increased their interest in Leeds from £305 million in 2017 to £498 million in 2018, with the largest total foreign investment coming from France Last year, the USA were the largest with £37 million investment.

Lesley Males, Datscha’s Head of Research, commented: “Leeds has performed well as a regional city over the past 12 months. It’s encouraging to see strong UK domestic investment at a time when the market is slowing down ahead of the Britain’s departure from the EU – this shows the city’s value to UK investors, unlike other regional capitals which seem to gain their lion’s share of investment from abroad. Demand for commercial property investment in the region should continue. “

“Our research matches every asset within the portfolio to its correct title deed which reveals, with accuracy, the properties that are being transacted regionally - as opposed to providing a top line summary of the whole portfolio in isolation. Examples of significant portfolio deals, with assets in Leeds, include the Foncieres des Regions £858m hotel portfolio deal as well as the £1.2bn MRH Petrol Station portfolio.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Stoch .