Bank of Ireland Private Banking has announced the sale of 76-77 Princes St., Edinburgh for £11.2m.
The property contains three retail units which are let to Fraser Hart, Goldsmiths and Costa Coffee.
The deal reflects an initial yield of 4.57%.
The director of Bank of Ireland Private Banking Peter Collins, said that the deal reflects bank’s strategy of increasingly focussing on the Western European market.
“Underpinning this strategy is the fact that yields for commercial property in the UK and Ireland have become more demanding and some of the major European markets now offer investors better value.
“Our current advice to clients looking to add to their property portfolios has been to favour European locations such as Paris over the traditional UK markets.”
Referring to the UK disposals he said: “Initially we had expected to hold these properties for significantly longer.
“However, with the level of demand in the UK at present we felt that this was the right time to sell these particular properties.
“We continue to search for deals in the UK market, however we are finding that pricing has become much more demanding and it is simply more difficult to justify value for money for our clients.”
Over the last three years Bank of Ireland Private Banking has purchased over
€1bn (£700m) of property on behalf of syndicates or individual clients.
This portfolio is currently concentrated in the UK and Europe.
In total it manages in excess of €4bn (£2.8bn) in assets for wealthy families and individuals.
References: EGi News 19/10/05
