Almost £330m of property assets changed hands across Yorkshire in Q4 2017, pushing the annual total for the year to £1.32bn, up 44% on 2016. 

Several large-scale purchases boost volume 

Q4’s strong volume owed much to several large-scale purchases by UK institutions, including UNITE’s acquisition of Brass Founders in Sheffield for £36m, and Legal & General’s acquisition of Vangarde Leisure Scheme in York for £35m and Headingley Stadium in Leeds for £35m. 

Insatiable demand for alternatives sector 

2017 was a year of contrasting fortunes between the various property sectors. Insatiable demand for alternatives drove a record breaking year for the sector, with volume of £439m, smashing the previous high of £351m set in 2015 and accounting for a 33% share of volume.  

Meanwhile, the office sector fell back by almost a third from the £293m transacted in 2016, to just £199m.  

UK institutions make emphatic return 

Q4 also marked the emphatic return of domestic investors to the market. Institutional investment surged to £114m in Q4, two and a half times the previous quarter and the highest since Q3 2015. 

Luke Symonds, Head of Capital Markets across Yorkshire at LSH, said: “Despite the ongoing political turbulence, the robust nature of the region’s investment market underscores the attractive fundamentals on offer. “The emphatic return of domestic investors to the Yorkshire market in Q4 also confirms that there is more to UK property than a mere currency play in London.”

Download the Q4 2017 UKIT Report