The Top 10 UK Commercial Property Investments of the 2020s
RishitaRishita
18th Nov 2025
🕰️ 6 min read (1,107 words)
The 2020s have reshaped the UK’s commercial property landscape more profoundly than any decade since the Global Financial Crisis. Investors have navigated pandemic shocks, interest rate volatility, and fundamental changes in how offices, logistics hubs, and retail spaces are used. Yet through these disruptions, the enduring appeal of quality, income-producing real estate anchored by strong tenants and resilient locations, has remained constant.
Market Context
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The decade began with extraordinary disruption. COVID-19 accelerated remote work, reshaped corporate occupier strategies, and forced retailers to adapt overnight. At the same time, the explosion in e-commerce created a once-in-a-generation demand for logistics and “last-mile” space. By 2021, as the economy stabilised, investors returned to the market, this time with an intensified focus on future-proofed, ESG-compliant, and income-secure assets.
By mid-2025, UK commercial property investment volumes had rebounded strongly. According to CBRE Q2 2025, annual transactions were up nearly 20% from 2020, driven largely by industrial and logistics deals, which accounted for more than 40% of total investment value. Landmark deals ranged from £300–800 million, with several transactions exceeding £1 billion. The UK continued to attract significant international capital, led by North American private equity, Canadian pension funds, and Asian sovereign wealth investors.
This list highlights ten of the decade’s most significant commercial property investments, spanning logistics, offices, data centres, retail parks, life sciences, and alternatives. Together, they reflect how capital, confidence, and strategy have evolved across the decade, and where the UK remains a global magnet for institutional and cross-border investment.
Industrial & Logistics
Logistics established itself as the most resilient asset class of the decade, supported by e-commerce adoption, supply-chain reshoring, and long-dated leases from investment-grade occupiers.
Case Study 1: Hansteen Industrial Portfolio (Blackstone)
- Investment Price: ~£500m (2020)
- Tenants: SME industrial and logistics occupiers
- Yield: ~6%
- Appeal: Diversified income, multi-let growth opportunity, strong occupational demand
Case Study 2: Asda “Project Alaska” Logistics Portfolio
- Investment Price: ~£1.7bn (2024 sale-and-leaseback)
- Tenants: Asda, Amazon, 3PL providers
- Yield: ~4.5–5%
- Appeal: National grocery and last-mile logistics network with indexed rental security
Prime Offices
Prime City and West End offices remained a magnet for global capital — even during hybrid-work disruption — driven by long leases, sustainability credentials, and blue-chip tenants. These buildings continue to command premium pricing and tight yields.
Case Study 1: 20 Fenchurch Street, London
- Investment Price: ~£1.3bn (2017 sale; held as trophy through 2020s)
- Tenants: RSA Insurance, Hiscox, global corporates
- Yield: ~3.5–4% at acquisition
- Appeal: Landmark tower with public Sky Garden, strong tenant covenant, resilient City rents
Case Study 2: 1 Broadgate, London
- Investment Price: £1.2bn+ development programme
- Tenants: Mastercard HQ, Hogan Lovells HQ
- Yield: N/A (pre-let development)
- Appeal: Major ESG-certified regeneration project in London's largest mixed-use estate
Retail Parks
After early-decade challenges, prime retail parks and urban lifestyle districts rebounded — backed by experiential retail, omnichannel tenants, and strong footfall fundamentals.
Case Study 1: The Trafford Centre, Manchester
- Investment Context: Administration transfer & recapitalisations (2020–2023) with valuations historically in the £1.3–1.6bn range
- Tenants: Selfridges, M&S, Primark, leisure (SEA LIFE, Legoland)
- Yield: ~5–6% (regional super-prime retail band, where disclosed)
- Appeal: One of Europe’s largest malls, tourism draw, leisure-anchored, regional dominance
Case Study 2: Liverpool ONE
- Investment Price: ~£490m (2025, Shaftesbury Capital)
- Tenants: John Lewis, Arket, leisure & F&B operators
- Yield: ~5%+
- Appeal: UK's largest open-air retail destination, sustained footfall, diversified experiential mix
Data Centres & Digital Infrastructure
AI, cloud growth, and digitalisation transformed data centres into institutional core assets — prioritised for power access, connectivity, and scalability.
Case Study 1: British Land Data-Centre Portfolio Sale
- Investment Price: ~£125 million (2023 disposal)
- Assets: Office-enabled data-centre facilities within Greater London
- Appeal: Prime urban edge-location sites suitable for conversion/upgrade to full data-centre use.
Case Study 2: SEGRO x Pure Data Centres – London Hyperscale Campus
- Investment Scale: ~£1 billion committed development programme (announced 2025)
- Parties: SEGRO (developer/landlord) & Pure Data Centres (operator)
- Tenants: Hyperscale cloud / AI compute operators (pre-let interest reported)
- Appeal: One of the largest UK hyperscale data-centre commitments of the decade, driven by AI compute demand and power-secured campus strategy. Long-term institutional infrastructure partnership structure with expansion runway and renewable-power integration.
Hospitality & Urban Leisure
Hotel portfolios found renewed institutional support as travel normalised and branded operators demonstrated robust operating performance.
Case Study 1: 33 UK Marriott Hotels Portfolio (KKR & Baupost)
- Investment Price: ~£900 million (Dec 2024)
- Tenants/Brands: Marriott / Delta by Marriott (multiple UK city & London locations)
- Appeal: Large-scale institutional acquisition of branded full-service hotels, demonstrating international capital confidence and hotel‑asset recovery in the UK market.
Case Study 2: 21‑Hotel UK Portfolio (Ares Real Estate & EQ Group from Landsec)
- Investment Price: ~£400 million (2024)
- Tenants/Brands: Long‑lease to AccorInvest (brand operator) across key UK cities including London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester
- Appeal: Defence‑linked, long leasehold hotel portfolio buy‑out, showing the scale of portfolio transactions in UK hospitality and attraction of global investors.
Life Sciences & Innovation Real Estate
The Oxford-Cambridge-London triangle emerged as Europe’s leading research cluster, with severe lab shortages driving institutional investment into fitted and adaptable R&D space.
Case Study 1: BioMed Realty Cambridge Portfolio
- Investment Price: ~£850m (2022)
- Tenants: AstraZeneca, biotech operators
- Yield: ~4%
- Appeal: World-class science hub, constrained supply, long-term life-science demand
Case Study 2: Rolling Stock Yard, St Pancras / London Knowledge Quarter
- Investment Price: Acquired by Life Science REIT for £77.0 million in December 2021.
- Tenant / Location: Office‑lab building near St Pancras in London’s Knowledge Quarter; let to fintech firm Thought Machine until 2026.
- Yield: Net initial yield of ~4.4% at acquisition.
Roadside, Energy & Automotive Transition
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Roadside estates evolved into hybrid fuel-EV-retail hubs, supported by energy-infrastructure capital and long indexed leases.
Case Study 1: Toucan Energy Solar Portfolio
- Investment Price: ~£655m
- Tenants: Local authority power agreements
- Yield: ~6%+
- Appeal: Renewable-infrastructure real estate with EV charging growth potential
Looking Ahead: What These Deals Tell Us
The 2020s have redefined what “core” means in commercial property. Logistics and data infrastructure became the new blue-chip assets, while ESG-driven regeneration reshaped offices and life-science hubs. Retail and hospitality have adapted to omnichannel and experiential models, proving that reinvention defines value.
As the UK enters the latter half of the decade, investors are likely to focus on:
- Operational resilience over pure yield compression;
- Green retrofits and embodied-carbon performance;
- Partnership models between real-estate owners and operating tenants; and
- Digital infrastructure as a mainstream investment class.
For more information on commercial property investments across the UK (regional, or small-scale), you can read up on:
