Finnish real estate investment company Sponda said that it has sold an office building in the centre of Turku, Finland for some EUR 15 mln. The buyer is real estate adviser Heikki Vaiste. The property provides about 7,300 m[sup]2[/sup] of leasable retail and office space.
Finnish real estate investment company Sponda said that it has sold an office building in the centre of Turku, Finland for some EUR 15 mln. The buyer is real estate adviser Heikki Vaiste. The property provides about 7,300 m2 of leasable retail and office space.
'Selling the property is part of Sponda's active development of its property portfolio, recycling assets to improve the value of the company's property portfolio and its yield potential,' it said in a statement.
The funds obtained from the sale will be used to finance Sponda's current property development projects. The listed company is recording capital gains of some EUR 1 mln on the sale.
During a capital markets conference held in Helsinki last week, Sponda's CEO Kari Inkinen said that the company will be looking for new investments in Finland and Russia as the prospects of these real estate markets improve. Sponda estimates that the positive development in occupancy rates, which started in Q2 2010, will continue for the rest of 2010 and values of prime properties are expected to increase.
In the wake of rising rental rates and inflation pressure, the company's second largest shareholder, the mutual pension insurance company Ilmarinen is planning to increase its real estate exposure from the current 10% to about 15% in the near future, according to manager Timo Ritakallio.
