American investors deployed £13.6 billion into the UK’s commercial property market in 2024.
This was more than double the amount spent a year earlier and a record 33% share of all investment into the UK.
Last year, the flow of capital from the US eclipsed inward investment of all other nations combined, with nearly half of the 62 deals larger than £100 million completed by a US buyer.
The first annual report from the British Property Federation and CoStar Group, a provider of online property marketplaces, and analytics, quantifies the scale of investment from overseas since 2021 into a range of property asset classes.
The report finds that over the past four years, American investors have bought £49.7 billion worth of UK commercial properties, dwarfing acquisitions from elsewhere in the world.
A particularly active part of the market has been American private equity buyers, with four of the five largest transactions in 2024, amounting to £5 billion, involving Blackstone, Starwood Capital, KKR and CD&R-backed Motor Fuel Group.
Private equity was primarily investing in hotels and mixed-use portfolios in 2024, but an uptick in larger transactions in London’s West End towards the end of the year indicates a growing appetite for prime offices.
While London remains a magnet for global capital, the UK’s regions are catching up as investors target beds, sheds and increasingly retail.
The South East remain the preferred regions for inward investment from overseas, but the maturing of the Build-to-Rent sector and demand for student housing is driving investment into the North West.
Together with the West Midlands, the North West has drawn more foreign capital than other regions (outside of London and the South East) over the past several years.
The industrial and logistics sector received the majority of overseas investment between 2021 and 2024, accounting for a quarter (24%) of all overseas investment into the UK.
Melanie Leech, BPF Chief Executive, says: “The UK real estate sector is a pre-eminent destination for global capital and we are delighted to launch with CoStar, our first annual report setting out the origin and scale of investment from overseas across the UK. We hope that these reports over time will build a picture of investment trends, and showcase the contribution of the sector to the economy and its wider role in boosting economic growth.
“It may not be surprising to see that the US tops the list this time for overseas investment given that US investors have been instrumental in the growth of the Build-to-Rent sector, providing more than a hundred thousand modern, professionally-managed homes, but also play an important role in the market for offices, logistics and, increasingly, retail.”
And Grant Lonsdale, Senior Director of Market Analytics, CoStar Group, adds: “Our comprehensive building and transactions data used to compile this report reveals an array of notable international investment trends into UK commercial property.
“One that is especially noteworthy is that although London attracts the lion’s share of cross-border funds flowing into the country, other regions are catching up as investors increasingly target the living and industrial sectors.”
