Realistic pricing in the UK market sees buyers willing to transact and invest in well-located offices.
While Amundi pulled another sale in Germany, of an office campus - reportedly due to disappointing bids - there were office transactions this week in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
WeWork’s investment arm is said to have accepted £48 mln, which is £542 per ft2, for 99 Queen Victoria Street, exchanging contracts with Fidelity International. The quoting price for the City of London building had been £70 mln. Fidelity said it will invest in an extensive refurbishment of the vacant property in line with net zero carbon targets, to create an investment for its new Fidelity European Real Estate Climate Impact Fund.
One Angel Square, the Co-op’s headquarters in its home city of Manchester, went on the market in summer 2022, initially for circa £210 mln. That wasn’t achieved and the building in the city’s NOMA quarter went back on the market a year later, priced at £165 mln.
This week, RREEF completed its acquisition, for just over £140 mln, on behalf of two of its clients.
And in Edinburgh, PGIM Real Estate invested in Argyle House, a 224,000 ft, 1960s government-let office which the buyer picked up for £38 mln and says has ‘fantastic potential for redevelopment in the heart of Edinburgh.’
There are more UK offices coming onto the market this week, including another sale from Lothbury, an early mover in the ongoing sell-off by UK open ended funds.
A notable transaction in Italy was Orion Capital Managers’ storming conclusion of its business plan for a luxury Rome hotel – sold for the highest price per room ever achieved in the Italian capital.
We track five funds raising capital, including big raises by King Street Capital Management and Blackstone for opportunity funds.
Seven new financings are headed by Azora’s raise in the private debt markets of €640 mln from a syndicate of European banks, for its Spanish residential-for-rent company Nestar.
