Three major London developments this week secured a combined £2.02bn (€2.4bn) in financing, led by a £1.5bn debt package for King’s Cross Central and a £280m loan for the next phase of Battersea Power Station.
NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC have provided a £1.5bn financing for King’s Cross Central, owned by AustralianSuper and Federated Hermes. The new debt package refinances a £1bn loan arranged by Morgan Stanley in 2022, marking a substantial increase in the financing secured against the London mixed-use development.
Meanwhile, CIMB, OCBC, Maybank and Standard Chartered have provided £280m to Battersea Power Station Development Company to support the development of the remaining 16 acres of the 42-acre riverside neighbourhood.
The loan follows the submission of a revised masterplan for the undeveloped land, proposing up to 3.2 million sqft of residential, commercial and leisure space.
A third transaction will support the delivery of student accommodation in Southwark. Maslow Capital has provided £238m to Arada and Shaw for the Devonshire Place purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) scheme, which will comprise 941 student beds across two blocks.
| Recently completed deals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Buyer | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Key facts |
| retail portfolio | retail | Spain and France | GIC, Atrato Group | Carrefour | 35 stores | €290 | Carrefour will continue to operate all of these stores under leases with an initial term of 12 years. |
| education-led campus, the Inventory | mixed-use | London | Telehouse, KDDI | LaSalle IM, Trilogy Real Estate Group | 701,000sqft | £220 (€260) | There is full planning consent for two residential towers. |
| 10% stake in Bluewater | retail | Dartford, UK | Landsec | NA | 1,921,089sqft | £95 (€112) | The acquisition increases Landsec’s ownership interest in Bluewater to 74.0%. |
| Chasse Sud retail park | retail | Lyon | Hines | TwentyTwo | 52,400m2 | €100 | The park has 57 shops. |
| Lakeshore | office | Bedfont Lakes, UK | Greycoat | Frasers | 271,153sqft | £75 (€89) | Frasers brought the asset to market earlier this year seeking more than £81.4m. |
| Elisen Park Greifswald shopping centre | retail | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany | Redevco | Patrizia | 39,000m2 | €75 | The property is 90% let to more than 40 tenants. |
| two newly built residential properties | living | Paris | M&G Real Estate | Gecina | 173 apartments | €67 | The assets have strong occupancy levels. |
| three nursing homes | healthcare | Marseille | REIT Plife | DomusVi Group | NA | €39 | The homes, which will come with a 12-year lease, will continue to be operated by DomusVi. |
| 1-3 Long Acre | office | London | Shaftesbury Capital | Royal London | 19,554sqft | £33 (€39) | The sale reflects a net initial yield of 5.29%. |
| DHL facility | logistics | Birmingham, UK | LBA Logistics | L&G | 179,691sqft | £32 (€38) | The Hams Hall site is fully let to DHL. |
| Morrisons supermarket | retail | Plymouth, UK | LaSalle | Unnamed institutional investor | 62,000sqft | £22.5 (€27) | The asset is fully let to Morrisons on a lease with 21 years remaining and CPI-linked rent reviews. |
| Hill View Place | living | Exeter, UK | Orka Investments | NA | 226 beds | NA | The scheme is 100% occupied for the 2026/27 academic year. |
| 65% stake in BROEN Shopping Centre | retail | Esbjerg, Denmark | AGAT Ejendomme | CapMan Nordic Real Estate I | 32,800m2 | NA | Broen is the last asset owned by the fund. |
| Holland Park hostel | hotel | London | MCR Property Group | Safestay | 331-beds | NA | MCR said it will strengthen the hostel’s appeal to backpackers. |
| National Car Parks platform | alternative | UK | Martin Property Group | administrators PwC UK | 145 assets | NA | Founded in 1931, the company operates 145 car parks across the UK employing 276 members of staff. |
| Beck retail park | retail | Wakefield, UK | The Church Commissioners for England | Fiera Real Estate UK | 200,800sqft | NA | The fully let scheme, which comprises eight units anchored by Sainsbury’s, was being marketed for around £34m. |
| two PBSA assets | living | Preston, UK | MCR Property Group | NA | 670 beds | NA | The acquisition comprises the 493-bed Moor Lane Halls and a 175-bed scheme on Walker Street, both near to the University of Lancashire campus. |
| Holiday Inn Zürich Oerlikon | hotel | Zurich | Intreal | FLE | 164 rooms | NA | The deal marks buyer’s first foray into Swiss market. |
| The Lake Como | hotel | Como, Italy | The Larius fund | Novum fund | 148 rooms | NA | The Lake Como EDITION was created through the redevelopment of a historic 19th-century building. |
| Glassmaker Quarter | mixed | Duesseldorf | Hines and Vastint | LEG | 193,000m2 | NA | The development is set to include 1,600 to 1,800 residential units, totaling around 210,000m2. |
| resi complex | living | Amsterdam | CBRE Investment Management | You’RE Development | 94 apartments | NA | The acquisition is being made through the Positive Impact Programmatic Venture (PIPV), an NN Group initiative. |
| Assets on the market | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Broker | Key facts |
| office portfolio | office | Germany | Volksbank Brawo | NA | €400+ | NA | The portfolio includes the former headquarters of the health insurer AOK in Düsseldorf. |
| Grafton Place and 60 Dawson Street | mixed | Dublin | BCP and MARK | 191,000sqft | €250+ | CBRE | The development is near full occupancy. |
| Building 100 at Bourne Business Park | office | Weybridge in Surrey, UK | ESR Europe | 190,762sqft | £63 (€75) | JLL and CBRE | The asset is 96% let to 16 occupiers, including Astellas Pharma, F5 Networks and Cochlear. |
| Storage Vault | self storage | Scotland | Storage Vault shareholders | 15+ stores | £50 (€59) | NA | Storage Vault operates a network of properties across Scotland combining self-storage facilities with flexible workspace and office units |
| Riverside Retail Park | retail | Norwich, UK | Nuveen Real Estate | 239,242sqft | £43 (€51) | JLL | The asset is being marketed for the first time since opening in June 2001. |
| The Centro Comercial Urbil | retail | San Sebastian, Spain | UBS | 35,538m2 | €50 | NA | The property was acquired by UBS in February 2014 for €61m. |
| Almondvale South Retail Park | retail | Livingston, UK | Fiera Real Estate | 146,237sqft | £34 (€41) | Montagu Evans and Xprop | The sale reflects a 6.75% net initial yield. |
| 12 King Street | office | Leeds | Opus North and Fiera Real Estate UK | 52,227sqft | £26 (€31) | Knight Frank, CBRE | The office hosts Lloyds Bank, Azets and NM Rothschild & Sons. |
| Recently completed loans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lender(s) | Borrower(s) | Asset(s) | Loan Size (mln) | Key facts |
| NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC | AustralianSuper and Federated Hermes. | The King’s Cross Central development in London | £1500 (€1775) | The debt package repays an £1 billion Morgan Stanley-led package from 2022. |
| CIMB, OCBC, Maybank and Standard Chartered | Battersea Power Station Development Company | Battersea Power Station Development | £280 (€331) | The loan will support the next phase of development. |
| Maslow Capital | Arada and Shaw | Devonshire Place PBSA scheme in Southwark | £238 (€282) | The finance from Maslow Capital will support the delivery of the Devonshire Place scheme, which will comprise 941 student beds across two blocks. |
| NatWest, the National Housing Bank | Native Land | 180-home St Mary’s Wharf scheme in Guildford | £132 (€156) | The funding was needed to advance the development with the main construction phase starting within weeks. |
| Atelier | Sheen Lane Developments | Griffin House in Hammersmith, London | £46 (€54) | The 18-month facility will support the redevelopment of the vacant office building into studio apartments under permitted development rights. |
| Maslow Capital | Tikehau Capital and Dunman Capital | serviced apartment repositioning scheme in Germany | €40 | The financing will fund the acquisition and conversion of a vacant hotel at Wielandstraße 8 in Berlin-Charlottenburg into approximately 250 serviced apartments. |
| Unicredit | Kwee family | Palazzo Rimbotti in Florence | €40 | The five-year loan will finance the redevelopment of the scheme. |
| Close Brothers Property Finance | Beechcroft Developments | development of luxury retirement homes in West Horsley | £31 (€37) | The 45-home project comprises two-bedroom houses and flats for the over-55s. |
| Investec Bank | Bridges Fund Management and ROK Property | The Edge PBSA scheme in Belfast | £21 (€25) | The scheme comprises 307 modern studio apartments, a fitness suite, private dining room, a cinema room and meeting and conference facilities. |
| New mandates/JVs and funds on the market | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm | Fund/mandate/JV | Strategy | Details |
| CULMIA and Cross Ocean | €400m Spain resi development | Focusing on two residential projects: Valdecarros, in Madrid, and Retamar de la Huerta, in Alcorcón | CULMIA will hold a 10% stake in the joint venture and will oversee the end-to-end management of the projects. |
| Alea | European Living Fund | Developing student housing and flex living across Portugal, Spain and Poland. | New fund reaches first close with around €50 million in anchor commitments. |
