Bruce Ritchie’s Residential Land has bought a block of 60 luxury flats in Paddington, W2, for £60m from Malaysian investor Amcorp.
The privately rented residential block at 4b Merchant Square forms part of the 1.8m sq ft mixed-use scheme developed by European Land, a joint venture between the Reuben brothers and Bruce Jarvis’s family trust.
The deal comes as European Land is preparing a potential £250m sale of the three remaining development sites at Merchant Square, including the proposed residential tower nicknamed the Cucumber.
Ritchie plans to rebrand and reposition the flats to boost their rent roll to £2.7m.
He said: “We are pleased to have made this strategic purchase at a time when West End Green [the 600-home project on Edgware Road being bought by Berkeley Homes] is finally moving forward and European Land’s plans for the Merchant Square Cucumber are also coming to the market.”
Amcorp acquired the building in 2013 from the Crown Estate for £47m. It financed the purchase with a loan from Singapore’s United Overseas Bank. The facility has now been carried over to Residential Land in one of the first such instances of a UK operator securing funding from UOB, according to Ritchie.
The deal follows Residential Land’s acquisition of Palace Wharf in Fulham, SW6, for £37m, taking the company’s prime London rental portfolio to more than 1,200 homes.
Residential Land is backed by Canadian pension fund Ivanhoé Cambridge.
