National Provident Institution have made purchases totalling £23.5m in “the high economic growth areas of Guildford and Hatfield”.
In the first deal, worth £18.5m, NPI have acquired Guildford Developments — a joint company of Tarmac and Clayform Properties — whose sole asset is an office development next to Guildford Station in Surrey. Currently under construction the property will provide some 42,000 sq ft of air-conditioned office space with 48 parking spaces.
NPI have funded the scheme to show a yield of 6.25% based on a rent of £24 per sq ft. Prime rents in Guildford are currently around £25.50 per sq ft and NPI’s advisers, de Morgan, are expecting the new building to achieve some £30 per sq ft. Such a rent would show a return to NPI in the region of 7%.
The second transaction, at the A1(M) Business Centre in Dixons Hill Road, Hatfield, Herts, involved the £7m acquisition of a light industrial and warehouse investment. Totalling 80,600 sq ft in seven single-storey units, rent reviews are due in 1992 and the purchase reflects a 7% yield. Stimpsons advised the vendors, the Rialto Group.
Jones Lang Wootton advised Guildford Developments, while de Morgan acted for NPI in both deals.
