The UK has seen a noticeable climb in demand over the past year, the findings of a survey of 958 private high net worth investors conducted in January suggest.

Some 35% of investors now favour the UK, making it the most popular sector, compared to 15% last year.

Overall investor confidence has remained relatively unchanged over the past 12 months, according to the reasearch, but attitudes towards emerging and developed markets have reversed.

Developed markets are now described as “leading the pack when it comes to investor confidence.”

Whereas 23% of investors favoured the emerging markets sector in 2013, only 9% expressed confidence in its outlook last month.

The Asia Pacific sector was subject to a similar fall in confidence. Last year, some 19% of investors favoured the sector, making it the second most popular, but this has now fallen to 6.5%.

Association of Investment Companies (AIC) communications director Annabel Brodie-Smith said: “Investor confidence remains strong, with sentiment towards developed markets surging ahead of emerging markets. The change in attitude towards the regions underlines the huge influence of short-term performance on confidence.”