Samuel Tak Lee, the Hong Kong real estate billionaire, has exchanged to sell 430,000 square feet of mixed-use assets at the northern end of the 13.8-acre Langham Estate in London's West End to US activist fund manager Elliott Management and Oval Real Estate for a figure believed to be in excess of £300 million.
JLL and Savills have been handling the sale of the Lotus portfolio, which comprises 27 freehold assets split across a mix of offices, retail, leisure, educational, medical and residential. Elliott and Oval are understood to have been advised by Colliers on the acquisition. A separate residential building is understood to have sold from the portfolio to a private residential developer for around £50 million.
The portfolio is rented across the offices at, on average, £53 per square feet. The wider Fitzrovia market has seen prime offices lease at £132 per square feet.
Situated in the heart of Fitzrovia, the Langham Estate comprises 13.8 acres and stretches from Oxford Street in the south to Regent Park and Great Portland Street station in the north.
Lee has made headlines in recent years for a legal spat with neighbouring landowner Shaftesbury, in which he held a majority shareholding. Soho, Chinatown and Carnaby Street landowner Shaftesbury merged with Capco earlier this year to form Shaftesbury Capital.
The transaction is the biggest in London's West End in 2023. According to Savills' most recent West End investment watch, November witnessed 10 deals totalling £496 million, accounting for 19% of total volume and bringing the cumulative annual total by then to £2.83 billion across 71 transactions.
It said approximately £900 million of new deals were agreed in the month, bringing the total sum under offer to £1.24 billion. Even if that total sum completed by the year end, 2023 wouldstill be the lowest transactional activity since 2009, which saw £3.05 billion, and 55% below the peak in 2014, which saw £9.05 billion, Savills reported.
This story was updated on 2 January to reflect that the process involved two sales.