Germany saw €5.2 bn of property investment from abroad in the first quarter of this year - more than half the amount spent in the whole of 2013, according to CBRE figures shared at PropertyEU's latest investment briefing on Germany.

Germany saw €5.2 bn of property investment from abroad in the first quarter of this year - more than half the amount spent in the whole of 2013, according to CBRE figures shared at PropertyEU's latest investment briefing on Germany.

The first-quarter figure equates to more than half the €9.4 bn invested from abroad last year. Foreign money accounts for 53% of property investment in the country so far in 2014, up from 31% for the whole of 2013.

‘In 2013, roughly 70% were domestic buyers,’ said Jan Linsin, head of research at CBRE Germany. ‘In the first three months of this year, we saw a lot of Anglo-American investors who bought large portfolios.

‘Cross-border investors are mainly looking at value add in secondary locations. We have the likes of Blackstone, and there is Grove International, who bought Aurelis in Q1.’

Grove, a private equity firm founded by George Soros, bought 43% of property firm Aurelis in February for more than €200 mln.

Other foreign deals include the €400 mln purchase of the Christie retail portfolio in eastern Germany by Morgan Stanley from M&G, the real estate business of Prudential.

Philip La Pierre, head of European investment management for Union Investment Germany, believes this is partly driven by limited options elsewhere.

‘Where else are you going to go in Europe? France isn’t looking very dandy at the moment,’ he said. ‘We’re seeing massive interest in Spain, but that’s something that will remain interest, I think, its not going to convert into a huge amount of deals. And you’ve got Eastern Europe and all the issues there and the Nordics being outpriced. Germany is a diverse, big economy to invest into, and especially if you have international money coming in it's the biggest economy. It’s a euro hedge, so you’re going to go with the strongest economy in the currency,’ he said.