British Land has spent more than £100m on tech parks in Cambridge and Surrey and a car park in London.
The REIT paid £75m for the Peterhouse Technology Park in Cambridge, representing a net initial yield of 4.15%. British Land said its strategy was to “more actively focus our capital on two strategic themes, campuses and retail and fulfilment”.
The 8.25-acre site, just outside the centre of Cambridge, comprises four buildings covering 140,000 sq ft. It is fully let to technology business Arm for its global headquarters at a passing rent of £26 per sq ft. The buildings are held on a long leasehold with significant reversionary potential and benefit from being close to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
British Land has also exchanged on the Priestley Centre in Guildford, located on the Surrey Research Park. It has paid £12m for the 7.8-acre site.
Meanwhile, a £20m deal to buy the Finsbury Square car park, EC2, will provide an opportunity for British Land to create a last-mile logistics hub in the City of London.
Over the quarter British Land has sold or gone under offer on around £160m of mature assets, 6% ahead of book value, including the part sale of the Woodfields Retail Park in Bury for £37.5m, 18% ahead of book value. The REIT’s residential building in the City, Wardrobe Court, is also under offer.
BL chief executive Simon Carter said: “Leasing activity at our London campuses has been strong, with a significant amount of space going under offer to a broad range of occupiers in the last two months. At the same time, we are continuing to deliver against our strategic priorities. We have sold off-strategy mature assets and will actively redeploy capital into opportunities that allow us to maximise our competitive advantage in asset management and development.”
Carter added that proceeds from the disposals would be used for more purchases and to fund the ongoing 1m sq ft Canada Water development.
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