July and August have witnessed a flurry of property deals fuelled from overseas. German property fund CGI has completed the £35m acquisition of the Arcades shopping centre in Ashton under Lyme, Greater Manchester.
Clients of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have paid £42m for 55 Colmore Row, a prime Birmingham office building. Capital & Income Group, which invests on behalf of Middle Eastern and European individuals, recently paid £102m for Sea Containers House, on the south bank of the Thames in London. Another German fund, DGI, paid £130m for 33 Grosvenor Place, in the West End of London. DIFA, its compatriot, paid £89 m for the Royal Bank of Canada Centre in the City of London.
Meanwhile UK funds also seem to be rediscovering a taste for commercial property. Hermes has agreed to finance the speculative development of One Carter Lane; Standard Life acquired a 9,290sq m (100,000sq ft) retail and office block on the corner of Piccadilly and Regent Street, in the West End for £39.4m.
- Financial Times 16/08/96 page 20
