French real estate fund manager Sofidy has bought 6-8 Bouverie Street in Holborn for £33.5 million from US investor Harbor, CoStar News can reveal, as a subdued London investor market continues to be starved of new stock for sale.
The building comprises 47,183 square feet (4,383.5 square metres) of offices and ancillary accommodation over basement, lower ground, ground and five upper floors. It was comprehensively refurbished in 2014 and is leased to Tipall, a subsidiary of Euromoney Institutional Investor, for a further 6.3 years. The passing rent is £2.3 million per annum, equating to an overall rent of £48.75 per square feet and a net initial yield of around 6.5%.
The price paid compares with 8–10 Old Jewry in the City, another recent sale, which Macquarie bought from Orchard Street for £41 million or a 6.72% net initial yield.
Sofidy is a busy investor across European real estate markets and in 2020 entered into a £67 million sale-and-leaseback with Penguin Random House, the famous book publisher, for its office at 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1.
Knight Frank and JLL advised Harbor while Cushman & Wakefield advised Sofidy. Parties involved declined to comment.
The Midtown sale has completed as the Benesco Charity has appointed Michael Elliott to sell Artillery House, a 63,000 square foot office on Artillery Row in Victoria in the West End, seeking £52.5 million or a 5.24% net initial yield, a relatively rare formally marketed London office at present.
The mixed-use Grade II listed building is multilet to nine occupiers with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 3.8 years.
The Benesco Charity invests in property in order to make grants to registered charities, mainly working in the fields of medicine, education and charity.
According to Savills just four assets were openly marketed over the course of February in the West End with a combined volume of £88 million, bringing the cumulative volume of newly marketed assets in 2023 in the submarket to £638.5 million.
At the same time, Savills reports that West End investment volumes totalled £343 million in February spread across three transactions, bringing annual turnover to £503 million across five transactions. It says that this sits in line with the five-year average by volume, but reflects a 52% fall by number of transactions.
The largest transaction in February in the West End, was GIC’s acquisition of a 75% stake in Tribeca, NW1, which Savills reports reflects a land value of £300 million. The vendor, British Airways New Airways Pensions Scheme, retained a 25% stake in the development scheme. The project will ultimately comprise five buildings providing 1 million square feet of laboratory, office, retail and restaurant accommodation alongside an 87-room hotel and 69 homes.