Global property investment market reached $1.18 trillion of transactions in 2013, the highest total since 2007.

Global property investment market reached $1.18 trillion of transactions in 2013, the highest total since 2007, a report has shown.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, a privately-held commercial real estate firm with more than $4 billion in assets under management, Asian investors are now the fastest growing source of global spending, spending 88 per cent outside the region. Although global spending as a whole is fuelled by North American investors, who account for 43 per cent of the share worth $43.8 billion, Middle Eastern investors increased their spending by 96 per cent.

Asia-Pacific markets soared last year, particularly land sales in China, peaking at 37 per cent to $397 billion which is 34 per cent of the global total, and is forecast to increase by seven to eight per cent in 2014.

A significant shift in the nature of cross-border activities is credited to global, rather than expected regional players, where regional investments were on the up at 13 per cent, compared to 36 per cent of global investment driven by investment into EMEA.

America failed to drive global growth for the first time since 2009 but still produced strong output in comparison to other regions.