^{Source: Savills Research}

■ A notable deal from January was the purchase of 1 America Square, EC3 for £130m, £565/sq ft and 6.2%, by Hermes & Canada Pension Plan from Blackstone. The 230,285 sq ft long leasehold building is currently multi-let to 11 tenants with a WAULT of nine years to expiry. Key tenants include Chubb Insurance, Scottish Widows and Algomi Limited.

■ Another notable deal which completed in January was the purchase of 50 Finsbury Square, EC2 for £119m, £942/sq ft and 5.27%, by GPE from Deka. The 126,289 sq ft freehold building is let entirely to Bloomberg LP for a term to expire in June 2020. The retail accommodation is let to GAP, National Westminster Bank Plc, Starbucks, EAT and Wasabi for terms to expire between December 2016 and January 2021.

■ Of the 14 deals completed in January, 10 were UK purchasers accounting for 93% of the month's turnover volume.

■ Although a relatively small deal it was encouraging to see more private middle-eastern money arriving into the UK as a private investor bought 90-94 Fleet Street, EC4 for £13.6m, £1,111/sq ft and 3.34%.

■ We anticipate more Middle Eastern private capital to enter the UK in the near future as a result of geopolitical instability combined with the drop in oil prices as investors with liquidity seek opportunities in higher yielding asset classes.

■ In the City market, we are currently monitoring 75 investment opportunities totalling £5.1bn. Of this, we are aware of 22 which are currently under-offer totalling circa £2.3bn, leaving an estimated £2.8bn worth of investments fully available (Graph 2).

^{Source: Savills Research}

■ IPD average equivalent yield was 5.55% at the end of January, down from 5.92% at this point last year. Furthermore, Savills prime yield remains at 4%, which is an all time record low. Moreover, the spread between the City and the West End remains at 100bps with the West End prime yield at 3%.

^{Source: Savills Research}

^{Source: Savills Research}