Waterside Court Waterside Business Park
Langley Berkshire
Two office buildings totalling 20,500 sq ft let for another eight years to Osram and Chubb. We brought the investment to the market looking for more than £5.65 million producing a net initial yield of 6.75%. We sold to clients of King Sturge for £5.875 million giving the buyer a net initial yield of 6.5%. This price was approximately 5% ahead of our client’s bank’s valuation.

Stratford Hub Cook’s Road Stratford London E15
When we first introduced this property to our client this was a vacant industrial estate, totalling 80,000 sq ft, with tremendous potential. The estate is immediately off the A102M Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road and is on the boundary with the 2012 Olympic Zone and was, until recently, let to London Borough of Newham. This property was not tired; it was exhausted following years of neglect. We bought off market as the seller was aware of numerous problems and understood that the buyer would have to be both financially innovative and adventurous. Our client paid £6.5 million and took over a £1.5 million dilapidations claim against the tenant. The before and after photos show what can be achieved. Most of the property is now let to companies including BSS Group Plc, BOC Plc and Brandon Plc. More information is available from www.stratfordhub.com

TBV Colthrop Way Thatcham Berkshire
This is a business park of 20 two storey office buildings totalling 60,000 sq ft on a heavily landscaped campus complete with water features. It was let to tenants of various qualities, including Experian, Trader Media Group and Cessna Aircraft Corporation.. We abandoned the previous identity of Thatcham Business Village and rebranded the park as TBV. This repositioning, coupledwith our client’s rolling improvement programme, enabled us to let to Experian at £16 per sq ft, a record for the park. We advised our client that this letting established the highest reversionary value for the next couple of years and as a result our client decided to sell. We sold to private property company, Cityreal, for a price in the region of £9.54 million, a net initial yield of 7.1%.

1 Newton Road Crawley West Sussex
This is a modern 33,000 sq ft single storey industrial building on a 1.5 acres site on Manor Royal Industrial Estate, the best commercial estate in Crawley with a very varied mix of industrial and office buildings. The building is let to Thales who will probably vacate in 2009. The current rent is only £6.45 per sq ft because the rent review clause assumes a 25 years hypothetical term which probably justifies a discount. This discount will disappear on expiry. Our client bought because this investment meets most of his buying criteria; a good quality building in a sought after location let with a short term to expiry enabling eventual improvement. Our client paid £3.2 million – a net initial yield of 6.35%.