Marcus Cooper Group is hoping to cash in on demand for ground rents by putting a £50m portfolio of West End long leaseholds up for sale.
Private investor Marcus Cooper has instructed Mayfair-based agent Brown Cooper Marples to seek offers for the 78,000 sq ft portfolio of 13 properties. The asking price reflects a 1.8% initial yield.
The assets, most of which are offices, were bought as part of a portfolio of 17 properties from the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor for £33m in 2006. Four of the properties were sold later that year to a Middle Eastern investor for £16.5m.
Cooper said: “I held the rest of the properties to take advantage of the growing appetite for the assets, and now with such high demand for these products, I think it’s time to test the market.”
Ground rents have attracted the interest of institutions in recent months, with Aviva Investors and the Dorchester Group teaming up to launch a £250m residential fund and Pramerica Real Estate Investors winning the mandate to invest £135m into ground leases on behalf of a major corporate pension fund.
The portfolio, which comprises the Taiwanese Embassy at 50 Grosvenor Gardens, SW1 (pictured), 61-62 South Audley Street, and 12 Upper Grosvenor Street, both W1, is also likely to appeal to sovereign wealth funds.
Debt for Marcus Cooper Group’s purchase of the portfolio was provided by the Irish Nationwide Building Society, which has since been subsumed into the state-owned Irish Banking Resolution Corporation.
Cooper said the sale was not Nama-forced, however.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
