Global real estate has enjoyed two plentiful years — attracting $700bn in direct investment in 2015 and slightly more the year before, not far from the record $758bn achieved in 2007, according to the Chicago-based estate agency JLL.

But 2016 began with equity and bond markets in turmoil, while prices for buildings in key office centres such as London and New York have been coming off record highs. That left the industry with one question to answer: has the market peaked?

“The bloom has come off the rose a bit in terms of real estate valuations,” says Jon Zehner, global head of client capital group at LaSalle Investment Management, one of the world’s largest real estate fund managers. “The prime market in gateway cities needed to stabilise — it was getting too hot. This could be an appropriate correction. A period of more stable values and maybe a little less passion in the market is what we’re envisioning for the year.”