Foreign investors continue to target Scottish property sector

Overseas investors are continuing to pump money into the propertymarketsinscotland’s two largest cities despite, or potentially as a consequence of, Brexit uncertainty.

The findings come from JLL’S latest “Big 6” study, which looks at the performance of the six main commercial property markets outside of London – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Birmingham.

The property consultancy said that there were 18 office investment transactions under offer within those six cities in the first quarter of 2019, compared to just six at the same point last year.

About 80 per cent of the capital involved in those deals has come from overseas, with Asian and Middle Eastern investors being particularly active.

JLL said the dominance of foreign capital within those transactions was particularly acute in Edinburgh, where 81 per cent of all deals in the city during 2018 were from overseas investors. Sterling’s weakness has made the UK a more attractive destination for some foreign investors.

Colin Finlayson, a director at JLL, said: “Overseas investors clearly still see relative value in the UK. Given the tight supply across Edinburgh and Glasgow we saw yield compression in both markets over the year. We are also seeing UK institutions entering into direct development to create their own prime investment stock.” 0 Colin Finlayson: investors still seeing ‘relative value’ in UK