Schroders’ West End of London Property Unit Trust saw a record £100m of units traded on the secondary market in 2013.
The fund manager said that the high annual volume of trades reflected strong demand for central London offices and for the fund, which is the top-performing fund in the AREF/IPD Pooled Property Funds Index over one, three and five years to December 2013.
It added that the high level of liquidity is mirrored across Schroders’ range of UK pooled property funds, with more than £400m of secondary trades completed last year.
In the 12 months to 31 December 2013, WELPUT’s net asset value per unit has risen from £496 to £617, delivering a trust return of 27.2%, this compares with the IPD benchmark of 18.3%.
The property portfolio and fund returns have outperformed the IPD West End and Midtown quarterly benchmark over the past year and three years to the end of December 2013.
More recently, WELPUT has successfully exchanged unconditional contracts to sell its freehold interest in New Court , Carey Street, WC2, to Lodha Group and secured a new financial services tenant at Orion House , its 15-floor multilet office tower on Upper St Martin’s Lane, WC2, at a record rent for Covent Garden of circa £80 per sq ft.
The fund, which is an unregulated collective investment scheme available to professional and sophisticated investors, is held by more than 80 investors, comprising occupational pension funds, local authority pension funds, charities and other domestic and international professional investors.
Ian Mason, fund advisor to WELPUT at Schroders, said: “WELPUT is the beneficiary of the growing appetite we are seeing from UK and international investors who are looking for access to the central London office investment market but are constrained by lot size or are unable to access high quality stock in this extremely competitive market.”
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
