Hong Kong firm snaps up London skyscraper in $1.47B deal

A Hong Kong property developer has confirmed the near completion of its almost $1.5 billion purchase of London’s “Cheesegrater” tower, as it takes advantage of the pound’s slump to snap up addresses in the British capital.

C C Land’s acquisition of the 224-meters-high Leadenhall Building, which earned its nickname from its wedge shape, is the biggest single property purchase in the U.K. since 2014, when a Qatari wealth fund bought London’s HSBC Tower for £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion at current exchange rates).

Chinese and Hong Kong investors spent £2.9 billion ($3.7 at current exchange rates) — more than buyers from any other region — on central London offices in 2016, broker Knight Frank said in a February report cited by Bloomberg News.

Other investors have also said they will be investing in a post-Brexit U.K.

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