A European office real estate investment fund set up by Spanish insurance group Mapfre and GLL Real Estate Partners has paid an undisclosed amount to buy Yalding House, the former BBC Radio headquarters building in London.
In March 2018, Mapfre and GLL teamed up to establish the euro-zone office fund to invest up to €300m in prime office space within two or three years.
Mapfre said today that the SIEREF-GLL fund has acquired the 2,700sqm building in London Fitzrovia. The former BBC Radio headquarters is currently home to US technology firm Slack, Russells Solicitors and O&P Management.
This is the second transaction that has been closed via this vehicle in just two weeks, following on the back of the purchase of the Clifford Chance headquarters building in Luxembourg, Mapfre said.
José Luis Jiménez, Mapfre’s group CIO, said: “We are detecting attractive returns in offices in the prime areas of the main European cities, despite the COVID-19 crisis, which makes it easier for us to diversify our portfolio toward these alternative assets in a context of historically low-interest rates.”
Mapfre said, the fund, which also owns other assets in Paris, Hamburg and Milan, has so far committed close to €200m of its €300m target.
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