Alternative property has become a bigger hunting ground than ever for investors as they increasingly diversify away — need to diversify away, on yield grounds — from traditional real estate. Investment levels reached a record last year, with one of the United Kingdom’s biggest advisory firms forecasting even higher levels of deal activity in 2016.

In April, Knight Frank predicted a 10 percent rise this year in direct investment in four core property sub-sectors — automotive, healthcare, hotels and student accommodation — with year-end investment volumes expected to reach £14.3 billion (€18.2 billion). The forecast followed a record £13 billion (€17 billion) invested in UK specialist real estate in 2015 — this was a 61 percent increase on 2014, according to the specialist property report published by Knight Frank in April.

It said that allocations to alternative property in the United Kingdom had increased from 4 percent of the universe covered by MSCI