Dubai

MIDDLE East sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) cut their new investments in real estate in the rest of the world by almost a third last year because of the plunge of oil prices, consultants CBRE estimated.

Outbound property investment by the SWFs, the vast majority of which are from the Gulf Arab oil exporters, dropped 31 per cent to US$5.84 billion in 2014 from US$8.45 billion in 2013, CBRE wrote in a report on Tuesday. "This reflects more cautious behaviour from natural resource-based SWFs in light of weaker oil pricing," CBRE said. "The effect might be even stronger in 2015 and in the next couple of years after." A large proportion of the investment is in Europe.