Barings, on behalf of a core European real estate strategy, has acquired a portfolio of four multi-let urban logistics properties across the south east of England for £145.2m from Blackstone.
Known as the Access portfolio, the assets are located in Basingstoke (Tyson Park), Bracknell (The Sterling Centre), Welwyn Garden City (Centrapark) and Milton Keynes (Stratus Business Park).
In total, the portfolio includes 28 units spanning 746,795 sq ft, with occupancy in excess of 90%.
All four estates are located in the south east sub-market and within an hour’s drive of London. The south east benefits from favourable demand-supply dynamics due to limited availability of land for development and occupiers being priced out of London.
DTRE advised Barings. JLL acted on behalf of Blackstone.
Henry Marlow, director, UK transactions, at Barings Real Estate, said: “This transaction offered the opportunity to acquire a high-quality portfolio made up of four individually highly liquid assets that offer significant reversionary potential.
“Given the supply-demand dynamics in the south east of England, particularly among mid-box and multi-let industrial estates, where development remains constrained due to land and build costs, the Access portfolio should yield a healthy income return and good rental growth. Logistics remains one of our preferred markets in the UK, alongside living assets, whether that’s for core-plus or value-add investments.”
Gunther Deutsch, managing director, head of European transactions and country head Germany at Barings Real Estate, said: “This transaction marks our first portfolio acquisition in 2025, which we hope to follow with further smaller- and medium-sized national or European logistics portfolios as well as significant single-asset transactions, preferably in our target markets of the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordics.
“As a result of our diverse European strategies, we’re in the fortunate position to explore risk profiles in the core, and core+ to value add spectrum, ranging from standing assets that can benefit from asset management initiatives to improve their performance, right through to joint ventures with developers to seek value-add returns. Besides logistics, residential and office investments are also on top of our target list.”
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