Deka Immobilien invests in Scottish office, retail property

Deka Immobilien has bought an office and retail property asset in Scotland for £105.25m (€131.6m), investing in the Atria building in Edinburgh.

The property, in the Exchange district of the UK city, was sold by the City of Edinburgh Council.

John Heaver, director at Savills, said Scotland’s investment market was attracting increasing levels of international interest, with overseas investors growing to take a 41% share of total investment in commercial property in 2015.

Two buildings, which total 200,000 sq ft, make up the asset.

Office tenants include PwC, Aon, IBM and the UK Green Investment Bank, while the asset’s retail space is let to Co-operative Food and Café Klaris. 

“With a 100% prime location in the heart of the capital, Atria Edinburgh is arguably the best office building in the city that satisfies Deka’s investment requirement for modern, high-quality prime offices in leading UK cities,” Heaver said. 

“Whilst the majority of space is well let, the leasing fundamentals in Edinburgh, where demand for prime office space increased by 44% in 2015, are encouraging for the vacant accommodation.”

Heaver said Deka was attracted to the “comparable good value”, as Scotland’s investment market continues to trade at a discount to the rest of the UK.