The London Property Alliance, which represents the UK capital’s leading real estate developers and investors, has published the latest edition of its Global Cities Survey, which shows London is surging further ahead of global rivals New York, Paris, Berlin and Hong Kong in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). This includes corporate relocations, investments into UK companies and real estate transactions.

Overall, London’s FDI volumes were up 16% to 103 projects and deals in Q4 2023, from the 89 recorded at Q4 2022, when widespread interest rate hikes began to slow cross-border investment globally. Numerous real estate transactions helped to support this capital inflow, including the owners of Canary Wharf Group, Brookfield and Qatar Investment Authority, committing £400m towards the mixed-use district’s long-term development ambitions.

Meanwhile, in the same period Paris saw a sharp 75% decline in the number of FDI projects from 79 to 20, in the run up to the city hosting the 2024 Olympic Games. Berlin also saw a decrease from 46 to 24 projects (-48%) with New York and Hong Kong both registering a slight decline (50 to 42; 35 to 29 respectively).