West End commercial property seen to draw US$8.9B in investment

L O N D O N C A L L I N G

Investors may spend a record US$ 8.9-billion this year on commercial property in London’s West End, as rents rise in the world’s costliest office location. Property investors paid £1.7-billion (US$2.04-billion) for West End offices and shops in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first nine months of the year to £ 4.1-billion. That matches the amount spent in all of 2004. “Investment should reach £5-billion or more by the end of the year,” said Andrew Thomas, a partner in Cushman & Wakefield. “We don’t see any discernible slackening in investment demand.” Property companies, pension funds, and overseas buyers are purchasing U.K. real estate, the country’s only asset class to make money for investors in every year since 1992.