London has trumped New York in the race to be crowned the world's best city for foreigners to invest in real estate.
The capital landed top spot after coming second in the annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) last year.
London is the only city not in the USA to make the top five, with New York, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles making up the rest of AFIRE's best places for foreign investment in 2013.
"It’s very easy to invest in London, there are no restrictions, the tax regime is good for foreign investors," said AFIRE's Chief Executive James Fetgatter.
"And it’s an international city so it attracts a lot of European, a lot of Middle Eastern and Asian money."
More than £7billion was spent by foreign investors on luxury homes in the capital, estate agents Savills estimated.
And average London house prices shot up by 12 per cent in the 12 months up to October last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.
