Qatar shopping for London landmarks

Middle Eastern visitors are often seen browsing London’s high-end boutiques when in the UK, but the Qataris literally bought the shop when they came to town.

That shop happened to be Harrods and a bigger buy than most at £1.5bn, but it was this scale and prestige that helped make it top of the shopping list for the Qatari sovereign wealth funds, which are building a trophy case of high-profile real estate and hotel assets in the UK.

This spending spree has already taken real estate investment in the capital to more than £5bn ($7bn) since 2006, and in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday, Ghanim bin Saad al-Saad, managing director of Qatari Diar, said the group would continue its investment drive in the UK.