High street retail investment soars as overseas investors flood London

According to a report by Reuters, the center of London and popular high street retail streets such as Oxford Street and Bond Street have been overflowed with foreign investors. The weakness in the sterling’s foreign exchange rate means that foreign investments have become more profitable.

Since the year 2006 2billion pounds of high street retailers have been bought on Oxford Street and a further 800million on Bond Street. Many foreign investors coming from Libya, Canada and Qatar have flooded the British retail market. In comparison to five years ago, 95% of Oxford Street was held by UK funded investors. This trend has taken a sharp turn and currently 60% of Oxford Street is held under foreign investors. Likewise Bond Street has seen an increase of 50% in foreign property ownership in the past five years. Read more of this post