Iconic British motor brand MG is driving into a new home on London’s Piccadilly after its Chinese owner bought a block opposite Fortnum & Mason.
SAIC Motor – whose subsidiary Nanjing Automobile rescued MG Rover from administration in 2005 – has completed a circa £28m purchase of 47-48 Piccadilly and 1-3 Albany Courtyard, W1, London.
The building will be used as MG’s London headquarters.
SAIC is the latest in a string of West End tenants to have opted to buy office buildings for their own occupation in order to avoid soaring rents and to secure their future in the supply-starved district.
The purchase, from a private UK family, comprises two vacant interconnecting buildings totalling 12,323 sq ft with grade-A offices and retail space on the ground floor.
MG is expected to draw up plans for a showroom and use the upper floors for its first London office. It joins a number of other car makers nearby, including Aston Martin, McLaren and BMW, in an area that is rich in British motor sport history.
MG’s new building is next to the former home of British Leyland, which later became MG Rover.
Other tenants that have bought buildings for their own use include Bauer Media last month paying £18.5m for 1 Golden Square, W1, and the billionaire owner of Warner Music Group spending £60m on 27 Wrights Lane, W8, in June.
Gregor Wallace, West End investment director at BNP Paribas Real Estate, said: “I am increasingly seeing tenants wanting to buy buildings. Companies are looking at their occupational costs and seeing that, with some rents rising 15% in the West End, it makes sense for them to own their own buildings.”
David Menzies Associates and Knight Frank advised the vendor. The buyer was advised by JLL.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
