There was a substantial increase in purchases by insurance companies in the third quarter to a record £4.2 billion ($6.7 billion) counterbalanced by £874 million ($1.4 billion) of sales. Pension funds bought £735 million ($1.1 billion) of property and sold £537 million ($850 million).

Greg Nicholson, Head of Investment at CB Hillier Parker, said: "These latest figures are incredibly strong and reinforce the view that UK institutions view property as an extremely attractive asset class in the current low growth environment. As a whole 2002 has been highly encouraging for the property investment market and property is set to out-perform equities and gilts for the third consecutive year".