The second quarter of 2026 was a solid one for UK commercial real estate transactions, a surprise for those expecting the impact of war in the Middle East to drag heavily on activity, with plenty of deals to recognise in CoStar's latest agency awards.
To be sure, the relatively strong figures have been aided by a string of huge deals that have masked a more general fall in business, adviser LSH reports.
The £10 billion of investment in the quarter reflects "resilience", according to LSH. But the figure is down 7% on the first quarter and 17% below the five-year quarterly average, while the number of transactions is down 20% on the first quarter.
There were more than 20 £100 million-plus transactions, taking up more than 62% of the total volume. The largest was Blue Owl Capital and Moor Park Capital Partners' acquisition of 12 acute-care hospitals operated by Spire Healthcare Group, the private hospital operator, for £1.368 billion. The deal wins CoStar's top sale ahead of Morgan Stanley and Ridgeback’s £1 billion purchase of the Metra Living private rental portfolio, as the living sector was once again the most active sector for investment.
Barclays' £750 million acquisition of its offices in Canary Wharf, as first reported by CoStar News, helped boost otherwise muted office sale figures, although the transaction has not been recognised in CoStar's agency awards as no agents were involved.
Retail was the best performing of the commercial sectors with the outstanding transaction being Frasers Group’s purchase of two designer outlet centres for circa £380 million, as revealed by CoStar News.
Take-up of space remained generally solid, with central London office leasing reaching 2.7 million square feet during the quarter, up 19% on the first quarter but still 7% below the 10-year quarterly average of 2.9 million square feet, according to CBRE.
DTRE's Big Box Logistics report finds that leasing volumes in the first half of this year were the "strongest on record" outside of what it calls the "COVID-distorted years", reaching 16.8 million square feet. The second quarter has been aided by a "distinctively retail flavour", DTRE says, with this occupier group accounting for 49%.
The third quarter has begun with a bang, as what would be one of the biggest real estate deals in the UK was lined up after listed industrial real estate investment trust Segro accepted a £14 billion offer from US peer Prologis. The bid at a 14% premium to Segro's net asset value suggests global investors are attaching much greater value to UK real estate than when betting on listed real estate company stock. That points to a much busier third quarter.
Top sale
UK healthcare real estate continues to be just what the doctor ordered for global investors
Blue Owl Capital, the American alternative asset manager, and British asset manager Moor Park Capital Partners' acquisition of a portfolio of 12 acute-care hospitals operated by Spire, a private hospital company, for £1.368 billion, continued a remarkably strong recent run of investment in the sector.
It also again pointed to the dominance of US private equity, with the transaction being Blue Owl's debut in the UK healthcare sector.
Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund, advised by Knight Frank, began the search last year for a buyer for a portfolio it bought from Spire in 2013 for £700 million.
Knight Frank, which has been notably active as an adviser in the space, reports that around £12 billion of property transactions completed for healthcare real estate in the UK in 2025, a record for annual investment and more than treble the long-term yearly average. And it is showing no signs of slowing down.
Top office lease
Anthropic's London HQ letting sets tone for major increase in AI firm moves
In a landmark London office letting, British Land and Royal London Asset Management signed pioneering AI group Anthropic for 158,000 square feet at One Triton Square, Regent’s Place in London.
The deal, revealed by CoStar News, was both a banner transaction for the growing dominance of lettings to AI-related firms in the capital's office market, as well as their clear preference for the '"King's Cross Knowledge quarter" near the eponymous station. It was also a major vindication for the landlord duo at a building Meta had previously paid not to occupy.
British Land had surprised the market in September 2023 when it secured the equivalent of seven years of rent from Meta at a building the Facebook parent had leased but never moved in to. Despite Meta having a tenant lined up to take on its lease, the real estate investment trust said then it would take the payment to break the lease as it was confident it would find an occupier for refurbished space targeting life sciences and tech occupiers. RLAM took a major stake in the building in 2024.
CBRE reports that AI-related office take-up in London was 450,816 square feet in the second quarter of 2026, bringing the first half 2026 total to 705,371 square feet. It says that figure is more than four times higher than the first half of 2025, when it was 165,819 square feet and more than double the full-year 2025 total (317,979 square feet).
Savills and Cushman & Wakefield advise BL and RLAM at 1 Triton Square. JLL and Kontor advised Anthropic.
Top industrial lease
Logistics group Bleckmann gets top Marqs with major Midlands letting
Marq Logistics completed the signing of logistics and supply chain management provider Bleckmann for a 761,000-square-foot hub at the ever-popular Magna Park in North Lutterworth, near the M1 motorway.
Marq, the former GLP Europe, has established an important relationship with Bleckmann in the UK. The company took 587,662 square feet at Marq's MPC 3 unit at Magna Park Corby in July 2024 for what at the time was its largest UK facility.
GLP Europe rebranded to Marq Logistics at the end of last year after its owner, Ares Management Corporation, moved to unify its global logistics real estate platforms. That move came nine months after Ares acquired GLP, excluding China, to form a global real assets business with more than $115 billion in assets.
DTRE and Apex Real Estate Advisors represented Marq Logisitics while JLL represented Bleckmann.
Top retail lease
Lefties right on track with UK expansion with Metrocentre letting
Spanish fashion retail giant Inditex has been racing ahead this year with plans to grow its budget fashion and lifestyle brand Lefties across the UK.
CoStar's top second-quarter retail Agency award is for the third UK store it has taken at large malls. The letting at Gateshead’s Metrocentre follows leases at Liverpool One and Lakeside in Essex.
Described as the Zara sister brand with Primark prices, Lefties, which was founded in 1999, is taking a 50,000-square-foot store at Metrocentre, the 2 million-square-foot mall that Landsec is in talks to buy for more than £500 million.
Time Retail Partners and Lunson Mitchenall represented the landlord, the Metrocentre Partnership.