South Korean investors are pulling out of deals to buy London offices after investing almost £3 billion last year with overall investment in the sector on course for a big drop ahead of Brexit. This year £527 million has been invested in central London offices, according to CBRE, the property advisory firm. That means a lot of activity will be needed in the next five weeks to get close to the £2.8 billion-worth of deals done in the first quarter of last year, or the first-quarter average of £3.7 billion over the past five years. The shortfall is partly the result of the withdrawal of South Korean investors, who replaced those from Hong Kong as the most dominant overseas investor group from Asia last year,
Londonn property investors are suffering from "indigestion" after snapping up almost £2.8bn ($3.7bn) in South Korea deals during Q1 2018, with just £527m spent so far in 2019, a far cry from the five-year, Q1 average of £3.7bn, according to CBRE. Among the reasons cited for the shortfall were Brexit's impact on sterling, an unfavourable domestic currency hedging environment and delays in selling down completed deals to other investors back in London.