Middle Eastern investors go for bite of Big Apple real estate

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

New York real estate is the new property investment route of choice for wealthy Middle Eastern speculators, according to reports. Gulf and Asian sovereign wealth funds could be moving away from banks in favour of property, the Financial Times says.

The paper states funding representatives from Kuwait and Qatar are among a group of buyers attempting to buy the GM building, which overlooks central park. Four other prime sites are apparently up for grabs as part of the deal, which involves the selling off of real estate belonging to the tycoon Harry Macklowe.

If the deal is agreed, it will mark a major stepping stone for Middle Eastern investors, who have previously concentrated on injecting cash into Wall Street banks. Quoted by the paper, senior managing director of broker GVA Williams Richard Warshauer called the planned sale a potential “watershed transaction”.

The deal could cause some murmurs in the US as sovereign wealth funds remain something of a enigma to the authorities. Late last year US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to develop guidelines for how such government reserve bodies should be permitted to wheel and deal.