Spanish REIT Merlin Properties has acquired an office building with a 37% vacancy rate in central Lisbon.
Merlin paid €60 mln for the acquisition of the asset at Marques Pombal 3 from Portuguese financial group Novo Banco.
The building is located in Praça Marquês de Pombal, the junction between Avenida da Liberdade and Fontes Pereira de Melo, in the CBD area of Lisbon.
The 10-storey building comprises 9,435 m2 for offices and 3,025 m2 of retail. The building, currently running at 63% occupancy, includes tenants such as McKinsey, Novo Banco, Banco Best and MDS Portugal.
Merlin said that the asset offered 'significant growth potential' through an active asset management to be focused on enhancing the retail area into upper scale, and continue bringing to the office component the best specifications in the market as contracts expire.
The acquisition price represents a gross yield on current occupancy of 4.0% and an ERV yield of 6.5%.
Merlin now owns over 60,000 m2 of leasable space in Lisbon, predominantly located in prime CBD and the Expo areas.
