Davy Stockbrokers has acquired a major property on Hamburg's busiest pedestrianised shopping street for €141.3 million on optimism high-street retailers will benefit once Germany's lacklustre economy picks up.

Davy bought Spitaler Hof, a retail and office building on Hamburg's Spitalerstrasse, on behalf of its private clients from open-ended German property fund DIFA at a yield of 5.4 per cent.

Retail tenants such as fashion store New Yorker generate 65 per cent of the property's rental income. Germany has suffered from weak consumer spending for about a decade, amid high unemployment and slow wage growth.

While the economy is set to grow at its fastest pace for five years, German consumers are still keeping their spending in check - retail sales have fallen further since January.

"When the economic environment improves, the high street retailers in premium properties such as Spitaler Hof will be the major beneficiaries," said David Goddard from Davy.

The recovery of retailing in Hamburg will be aided by the port city's increasing population, in contrast to declines for Germany as a whole. More than four million people live in the city's greater metropolitan area, reflecting Hamburg's underlying strength and its importance as a global centre of trade, according to the broker.

Davy, which manages six billion euro in assets for private clients, is focusing on expanding its portfolio of direct and indirect property investments in the UK, Europe and the US. It is currently in talks about a number of other investments in Germany.