Source: Savills Research
At the end of Q1, UK and US purchasers are level at the top of the turnover table.
■ March turnover was £1,047 million across 16 deals, resulting in the year-to-date turnover reaching £2,281 million, which is 34% up on this point last year.
■ As you can see from Graph 2, there have been more deals and higher turnover in the first quarter of this year than the previous two.
■ The largest transaction of the month was the £268.4 million purchase of Times Square, Queen Victoria Street EC4 by Blackstone. The 378,289 sq ft building was sold by Land Securities for a yield of 4.8%.
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GRAPH 1City turnover annually
■ Another notable transaction was the purchase of the site of The Pinnacle EC2 for a reported price of £220 million by a consortium including British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, PSP, Temasek and a pair of Axa Real Estate funds. They will now jointly fund a new one million sq ft skyscraper. The original site was purchased by Arab Investments in 2007 for a similar price, however a number of issues prevented the development from being built.
■ At the end of Q1, the majority of purchases have came from either the UK or the US, who combined have accounted for 28% of turnover. European purchasers are next, accounting for 23%, with Asian purchasers only accounting for 14% so far. It is likely we will see increased activity from Asian purchasers, especially due to the proposed £580 million purchase of The Walbrook Building by Cathay Life.
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GRAPH 2City turnover by month
Source: Savills Research
■ Investment stock seriously remains limited with the largest openly marketed opportunity being Riverside Development in the Docklands. The guiding price is upwards of £350 million for a five-acre site with planning permission for a Richard Rogers designed scheme of 3.5 million sq ft of office and retail space.
■ There is also a further 10 properties currently under-offer including The Stage in Shoreditch, which has planning permission for a 550,000 sq ft mixed use development under offer to a Cain Hoy lead consortium alongside Galliard for circa £170 million.
■ Savills prime yield is still 4.25% for the fourth month, which is down 25bps on this point last year but further downward pressure is being expected by sustained investor appetite.
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TABLE 1Key Deals in March 2015
Source: Savills Research