Gulf investment in foreign property to surge

Gulf Arab investors, flush with surplus cash from record oil revenues, will spend more than $20bn on international property acquisitions in 2008, according to Blair Hagkull, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, for Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's second-largest commercial real estate broker. He said Gulf investment in foreign property is set to grow 50% this year, helped by liquidity in the region and the credit crunch in other parts of the world.