http://www.stasiareport.com/the-big-...-boom-20131220

FOREIGN investors made 2013 a bumper year for commercial property in London, buying 70 per cent of £15 billion (S$31 billion) worth of office blocks, hotels and retail space that have changed hands so far this year.
Of these foreign investors, one-fifth are cash-rich Asian institutional investors - from Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and lately China and India. These funds have helped push office values in London's West End up 55 per cent in the last four years.
Prices are now at their highest since the last property boom of 2007. And with Asian funds holding on to their recent buys for long-term returns, there are fewer top-grade investment spaces available for sale.
"We won't get the same level of turnover next year," conceded Mr Nick Braybrook, head of City investment at property broker Knight Frank.


Background story

RETURNS FROM RISING RENTS
We're now in a market that finally showed rental growth in the last quarter. And with no new development in the last four years, limited supply means rents are forecast to rise rapidly.
- Mr Nick Braybrook, head of City investment at property broker Knight Frank



Of the foreign investors snapping up commercial space in London this year, one-fifth are cash-rich Asian institutional investors - from Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and lately China and India. -- PHOTO: BLOOMBERG