Ibus sells office buildings Les Boréales in Paris

Netherlands-based real estate firm Ibus has sold two office buildings named Les Boréales in Courtaboeuf, a business park near Paris. Les Boréales was acquired by Ibus in 2000 for an amount of EUR 9 mln and was sold to a French private investor for EUR 7.9 mln.

The two independent buildings have a total net lettable area of 5,026 m² and are located in Courtaboeuf, a business district near Paris. Both buildings are currently entirely let. Ibus said that the properties faced substantial vacancy of around 25% in recent years, which was solved by an active letting policy.

Ibus managing director Pepijn Morshuis: 'The office market in Courtaboeuf, where the office properties named Les Boréales are located, has been struggling for years. We are satisfied that we have been able to eliminate the entire vacancy in the buildings. Real estate investors are focusing these days on ‘core‘ assets of high quality in strong submarkets.

'Unfortunately, Courtaboeuf does not fall into this category. We do not rule out that the vacancy in Les Boréales will increase again over time. As a result, a sale of the assets at a later stage would probably result in a lower sales price. Therefore, we are satisfied that we have been able to finalise this process with an acceptable result. The realized sales price for the assets in combination with the annual achieved returns implies that investors have received their investment back and achieved a small, positive return.'