The Chinese city of Shanghai has become the number one destination for property investment in Asia Pacific, replacing Tokyo in top spot in the final quarter of last year, new figures show.

According to the latest figures from JLL, the strong performance of the property market in Shanghai was fuelled primarily by large transactions including ARA Asset Management’s US$2.9bn (£2.3bn) investment in the Century Link complex last October. It was also the biggest single-asset property transaction in the Asia-Pacific region in 2016.

Other high profile deals included the SCPG Holdings Properties portfolio that purchased by China Vanke from the Blackstone Group for $1.9bn (£1.5bn).

Zhou Zhifeng, JLL’s head of research for China, commented: “Domestic capital was the main driver of real estate transaction volumes in 2016, with domestic investors often outbidding foreign investors in many transactions.”

Globally, Shanghai was the fifth destination for property investment, after New York, London, Los Angeles and Paris, last year.

JLL report that the overall number of property transactions in Asia-Pacific region in the Q4 2016 increased by 21% year-on-year, while the total volume of property transactions rose 5% y-o-y in 2016.

The total volume of property transactions in Q4 was $15.5bn (£12.5bn) in China, surpassing $7.4bn (£6bn) in South Korea and $7.2bn (£5.8bn) in Japan.

“We believe that China – particularly Tier 1 cities – remains attractive to foreign investors as the market matures,” Zhifeng added.