Sale: Sytner, BMW & Mini, Worcester

CRRE Property Advice has been instructed to market this top quality car showroom investment in Worcester - please contact Giles Cooper for more information.

• Strategically located cathedral city in the heart of England with excellent connectivity

• Prominent, modern car showroom constructed in 2003 and subsequently extensively refurbished

• Substantial property totalling 41,122 sq ft on a site of 4 acres

• Let to Sytner Limited until 27 November 2036

• Total current income: £699,715 per annum

• Low passing rent reflecting approximately £17 per sq ft

• Rent reviewed five yearly, fixed to 2.5% per annum compounded

• Price: £10,500,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

• Net Initial Yield: 6.25%, rising to 7.07% in 2028 and 8.00% in 2033

Sale: Vindis, Audi, Bedford

• Bedford is a strategically located town 11 miles east of Milton Keynes, 25 miles west of Cambridge and 39 miles north of London

• Strong road links via the M1 Motorway and rail links to London St. Pancras

• Prominent modern car showroom constructed in 2000 and extended in 2016

• Substantial property totalling 26,209 sq ft

• Let to Vindis Group Limited until 28 June 2042 with no breaks

• Vindis Group Limited: turnover of £378m and gross profit of £46m (2022)

• Total current income: £280,000 per annum (£10.68 per sq ft)

• Rent reviewed five yearly to CPIH (collar 1% per annum/cap 3% per annum)

• Price: £4,400,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

• Net Initial Yield: 6% rising to an estimated 6.9% in 2027

Contact Giles Cooper.

New Sale: Car Dealership Investment: McLaren & Rolls Royce, Hockley Heath, Solihull

  • Strategic location within one of the most affluent areas of the UK

  • Prime car dealership developed in 2011

  • Substantial property totalling 14,727 sq ft

  • Let to Rybrook Ltd, guaranteed by Rybrook Holdings Ltd, until 27 November 2036

  • Five yearly upward only rent reviews fixed to 2.5% per annum compounded

  • D&B rating of A-92, indicating ‘Very Low Risk’

  • Freehold

  • Current Income: £356,335 per annum

  • Price: £5,000,000 subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

  • Net Initial Yield: 6.7%

The fixed increases within the leases will provide the following yield profile:

2028: £403,161 pa - 7.6%

2033: £456,140 pa - 8.6%

Contact Giles Cooper or joint agents Rose Realty

CRRE Acquires Prime Canterbury Retail Block for Private Investors

Private clients of CRRE Property Advice have successfully completed the acquisition of 5-7 The Parade & 10-11 Mercery Lane, Canterbury.

The 9,233 sq ft property comprises a prominent corner building with retail and ancillary space on the basement, ground and part first floors, with the remaining first and second floors comprising residential apartments,.

The building occupies a prominent position on the north side of The Parade, the city’s principal pedestrianised retail thoroughfare, at its junction with Mercery Lane.

The property is let entirely to Pret a Manger, Fat Face, Cornish Bakery, Roly’s Fudge and Bounce Vintage with eight residential units sold on long leases and produces a total income of £347,150 per annum.

Andy Smith of Smith Coley provided occupational advice. FMX acted for the vendor.

Sale: Harrogate - 17/23 Parliament Street

We have been instructed by Fund clients to market this prime town centre retail and leisure investment:

• Harrogate is one of the most attractive towns in the UK with an affluent catchment population and strong tourist appeal
• Prominent trading position within the central core retail and leisure area
• Substantial retail and leisure property totalling 19,283 sq ft
• Let to five tenants, with occupiers including Five Guys, Mitchells & Butlers and Marston’s

We are seeking offers in excess of £5,375,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT. A purchase at this level would reflect a net initial yield of 7%, assuming standard purchaser’s costs.

Contact Giles Cooper or our joint agents FMX.

Sale: Sheffield - 2/18 Cambridge Street & 11/17 Division Street

We have been instructed by Fund clients to market this prime city centre retail and leisure investment:

• Sheffield: England’s fourth largest city with two world recognised universities
• Strategic trading position within the central core leisure area and opposite the ‘Heart of the City’ project
• Substantial retail and leisure property totalling 28,945 sq ft
• Let to five retail/leisure tenants, with occupiers including JD Wetherspoon, Ask, Stonegate and Caffe Nero
• Weighted average unexpired lease term: 13 years

We are seeking offers in excess of £5,310,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT. A purchase at this level would reflect a net initial yield of 7%, assuming standard purchaser’s costs.

Contact Giles Cooper or our joint agents FMX.

Cooper Rose Completes Sale of Trio of Properties for Savills IM

On behalf of Savills IM, Cooper Rose Real Estate has completed the investment sale of 40 Hepworth Way, Walton-on-Thames for a price of £1m, reflecting a net initial yield of 8%.

The 7,500 sq ft property is let in its entirety to Sofas & Stuff Limited for a term of 10 years from 8 July 2022 at a rent of £85,000 per annum.

This completes the successful sale of three high street properties on behalf of the Charities Property Fund in Walton-on-Thames, Bath and Islington for a total price of around £5.7m.

Contact Giles Cooper

Sale of Manchester’s £43m Corn Exchange completes: From REACT News

Aviva has completed the sale of the Corn Exchange, a prime retail asset in the centre of Manchester, React News can reveal.

An ultra-high net worth individual, based in the Middle East, has completed the acquisition of the prominent building, after first having placed the asset under offer in September last year.

The Corn Exchange was marketed at a guide price of £42.8m, which would give a net initial yield of 6.4%, with pricing understood to be around asking. Cooper Rose acted for the purchaser and KLM Real Estate acted for the vendor.

After Aviva launched the sale in summer 2022, having fully repurposed the prime asset, there were understood to be seven bidders for the asset, with the Middle Eastern buyer emerging as the ultimate buyer.

The building is a Grade II-listed former market hall that was redeveloped by Queensberry Real Estate – backed by Aviva – and reopened in 2015. What had previously been the Triangle, an underused retail and leisure block, became the Corn Exchange and was re-let to a number of restaurant brands as well as a Roomzzz hotel which opened in 2017.

The scheme is 93% let and the 18 leases provide a total of £2.9m in rent. Occupiers include Mowgli, Zizzi, Cosy Club, Pizza Express, Tampopo and Pho.

The Corn Exchange occupies a prime location in central Manchester, opposite the main entrance to the 1.7m sq ft Arndale shopping centre, the Printworks cinema and leisure site, the National Football Museum, Manchester Victoria train station, the Manchester Arena and the Manchester Cathedral.

The sales process for the Corn Exchange began in May 2021, when Aviva announced it would be winding up the Aviva Investors UK Property Fund. Challenges across various sectors led to crashing values, forcing the fund manager to offload many of its prized assets including 20 Soho Square, which was sold for £117m in 2018.

The Corn Exchange was one of the largest remaining assets in the fund, after the sale of Lombardy Shopping Park in Hayes to M7 Real Estate for £47m.

Liverpool Site Acquisition

From React News. Cooper Rose Real Estate acted on the Liverpool acquisition:

Big US investor partners with Packaged Living to build £1bn BTR portfolio

3 Nov 2022 | by Guy Montague-Jones

Joint venture buys first site in Liverpool

  • What USAA Real Estate creates joint venture with Packaged Living to build £1bn build-to-rent portfolio

  • Why Move builds on USAA Real Estate’s BTR investments in the US and adds new dimension to Packaged Living’s business

  • What next Alongside the new joint venture, Packaged Living will continue to buy sites to be forward funded by others

USAA Real Estate has struck up a joint venture partnership with Fiera Real Estate-backed Packaged Living to assemble a £1bn build-to-rent portfolio, React News can reveal.

Best known in Europe for its investments in the logistics sector through John Cutts’ Mountpark, USAA Real Estate has $35bn in assets under management. It is a seasoned investor in the BTR market in the US, but the deal with Packaged Living marks its first foray into the sector in Europe.

The joint venture will seek sites for the development of between six and 10 BTR schemes in leading towns and cities. It is expected that the portfolio will have an end value of about £1bn when built out.

Packaged Living will be responsible for acquisitions and the development of the schemes. It has already bought the first site for the joint venture – an office property in Liverpool that the developer will look to redevelop into a 400-home BTR scheme with an end value of about £150m.

The site, formerly named Ovatus, was due to host the city’s tallest tower.

The plot has detailed consent for a 27-storey residential tower, along with pre-application plans for a 50-storey building, 10 storeys higher than West Tower, the city’s current tallest. The Estate Office was brought in to sell the plot last year by its former owners Prospect Capital and Wilcocks & Wilcocks, as revealed by React News.

For Packaged Living, the deal with USAA Real Estate comes a year after it entered into a joint venture partnership with Aviva Investors in the single-family rental market.

However, this is the company’s first joint venture in the multi-family market where it has up to now partnered with investors, including Invesco Real Estate and CDL Hospitality Trusts, in forward funding deals on individual developments.

Ed Ellerington, founder and managing director of Packaged Living, said: “We’ll continue to buy land on an opportunistic basis, gain planning with existing partners and develop via forward funding with institutional investors. However, our partnership with USAA provides an alternative capital source and route to market via a build to core fund, stabilising schemes and creating a scaled portfolio of multifamily schemes across the UK.

“We see attractive returns created from yield compression between funding and stabilised yields, further enhanced when part of a wider portfolio of assets.”

The size and type of scheme that the new joint venture will look to bring forward will be similar to what Packaged Living has already developed with others. Schemes will typically have between 300 and 500 homes and there will be a strong focus on energy efficiency.

Growth potential

Justin Hildebrandt, executive managing director and head of Europe at USAA Real Estate, said he saw plenty of scope for growth in the UK market.

“The total number of units in the UK is similar to Palm Beach in Florida (73,934) and if you take everything in the pipeline, you get the same level as Portland, Oregon (215,632). The numbers are so low and the opportunity is so great that I feel very confident in the growth potential over the coming decade.”

USAA Real Estate used to be part of USAA, a Texas-based Fortune 500 company that insures and invests on behalf of US military families, but in 2019 a controlling stake was sold to the management team and Paxion Capital. USAA retains a significant minority stake.

Contact Giles Cooper

Prime Retail Store / Showroom Investment - Walton-on-Thames

On behalf of Fund clients, Cooper Rose LLP has launched the sale of this prominent large store investment in Walton-on-Thames.

The property is let on a new lease at a re-based rent.

  • Walton-on-Thames – attractive commuter town with an affluent catchment population

  • Prominent town centre trading position

  • Substantial ground floor retail store/showroom totalling 7,498 sq ft (GIA)

  • Let on a new 10 year lease with a break at year 5 at a re-based rent to Sofas & Stuff Ltd

  • Tenant provides a lower than average risk of business failure according to Dun & Bradstreet

  • Headlease expires in 3008 at a fixed peppercorn rent

  • Total current income: £85,000 per annum

  • Price: £1,000,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

  • Net Initial Yield: 8%

Contact Giles Cooper or Andy Smith of Smith Coley.

Prime Car Dealership Investment - Solihull

Cooper Rose has today launched the sale of a prime car dealership investment in Solihull, let to Rybrook Ltd until 2036 with fixed rental increases:

  • Strategic location within one of the most affluent areas of the UK

  • Prime car dealership developed in 2011

  • Substantial property totalling 14,727 sq ft

  • Let to Rybrook Ltd, guaranteed by Rybrook Holdings Ltd, until 27 November 2036

  • Five yearly upward only rent reviews fixed to 2.5% per annum compounded

  • D&B rating of A-92, indicating ‘Very Low Risk’

  • Freehold

  • Current Income: £314,949 per annum

  • Topped-up Income (to 27 November 2023): £356,335 per annum

  • Price: £6,100,000 subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

  • Net Initial Yield: Approx. 5.5% based on the 2023 income

  • The fixed increases within the leases will provide the following yield profile:

    • 2023 £356,335 pa 5.5%

    • 2028 £403,161 pa 6.2%

    • 2033 £456,140 pa 7.0%

Contact Giles Cooper or Ben Rose

Move to 33 Broadwick Street, Soho, London W1F 0DQ

After 10 years at 16 Kingly Street, Soho, Cooper Rose LLP has moved offices nearby to 33 Broadwick Street, Soho, London W1F 0DQ. Our telephone numbers are unchanged.

Contact Ben Rose or Giles Cooper

Debenhams, Southampton - Landlord advised by Cooper Rose

From the Southern Daily Echo:

Tower at Debenhams site in Southampton 'will inject 1,000 people' into city centre

THE FORMER Debenhams store in Southampton will be knocked down and replaced with a new 17-storey apartment block.

There will be 598 flats, nine townhouses and a 108-space car park as well as a public plaza.

The scheme was given the green light during a city council Planning and Rights of Way Panel meeting on Tuesday.

Developer Shaun Adams, the CEO and owner of National Regional Property Group, architect Stephen Hodder, and agent Gareth Hooper, CEO of DPP Planning, all attended.

The development will comprise townhouses, and one, two and three-bedroom apartments, set in three separate blocks, surrounding a central plaza.

Block C is the building that will rise 17-storeys above the city centre, offering views of the Central Parks.

The new development will be the sixth tallest in Southampton.

Mr Adams, the developer, said that the apartment block will ‘inject around 1,000 new residents into the city centre’.

He says it will help the ‘city centre to bounce back’ and will ‘create a critical mass of people – making a meaningful change in the city’.

Mr Adams added: “I have a track record for successful delivery of these projects in Southampton.

"I am one of the few local developers that has successfully delivered affordable housing in the centre of Southampton.

“This is a scheme that is very important to us. We worked incredibly hard with the authority right across the board to try and deliver the best possible scheme.

“It’s an exciting scheme in these very challenging times.

“I will deliver hundreds of construction jobs, training and enterprise, which I believe is important for Southampton city centre.”

The panel gave the go-ahead to the development in principle, but delegated the final approval to the council’s head of planning.

It has stipulated several conditions that must be met before the head of planning agrees it, including numbers of cycle bays and electric car charging points.

Bath - 4 Union Street

Cooper Rose and Smith Coley have been instructed to market the freehold of this property, a superb opportunity to acquire a prime retail investment in Bath at a historically low price:

• Bath - one of the most attractive cities in the UK

• Prime trading position on the western side of the pedestrianised Union Street

• Substantial retail property totalling 2,399 sq ft

• Let on a new 10 year lease (break at year 5) at a re-based rent to Mr Simms Bath Ltd

• Total current income: £65,000 per annum

• Future potential for the redevelopment of the upper floors (STPP)

• Price: £1,000,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

• Net Initial Yield: 6.15%

Contact Giles Cooper or Andy Smith

Sainsbury's Wakefield - React News

From React News:

Investors look to add £47m Sainsbury’s to basket

24 May 2022 | by Charlie Schouten

Store in Wakefield is one of supermarket chain’s better-performing branches

  • What A supermarket let to Sainsbury’s in Wakefield has been put up for sale

  • Why Investor appetite remains strong for supermarket assets in post-pandemic world

  • What next Offers of £47m invited

Activity in the supermarket investment market shows no signs of abating with a Sainsbury’s store in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, now on the market for £47m, React News can reveal.

Cooper Rose has been instructed to find a buyer for the purpose-built food store, which totals nearly 117,000 sq ft of retail space. Sainsbury’s has a lease in place until May 2036, and the store generates more than £2.5m per annum in rent, which equates to £21.50/sq ft.

Cooper Rose is selling the supermarket on behalf of a private investor, and a sale at £47m would represent a net initial yield of 5%. The store is being sold on a long-leasehold basis.

The supermarket is linked to the 500,000 sq ft Trinity Walk shopping centre, where Next, H&M, New Look, JD Sports and River Island are among the tenants. The Sainsbury’s unit is in separate ownership to the shopping centre.

The store is let to Sainsbury’s until May 2036

At £47m, the sale is one of the largest active in Yorkshire at present, and is likely to attract strong interest given the number of investors ploughing funds into supermarkets over the past two to three years.

Sales in Yorkshire and the North East in the last six months include LXi’s acquisition of a reconfigured supermarket in Middlesbrough for nearly £59m. The store was originally due to be let to Sainsbury’s but has since been reconfigured to house other tenants including B&M.

Sainsbury’s, Wakefield - Prime Foodstore Investment

On behalf of private clients, Cooper Rose has launched the sale of a prime foodstore investment in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the salient points of which are as follows:

  • Located in the Cathedral City of Wakefield, one of the principal retail and commercial centres in Yorkshire

  • Let to the excellent covenant of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited until 22 May 2036 (14 years unexpired)

  • Purpose built foodstore extending to 116,763 sq ft

  • The rent is subject to 5 yearly rent reviews to Open Market Value with the next review on 23 May 2026

  • 999 year long leasehold from 13 August 2014 at a peppercorn

  • The property is the dominant foodstore within Wakefield city centre

Total current income: £2,510,414.50 per annum

Price: £47,000,000 subject to contract and exclusive of VAT

Net Initial Yield: 5.00%

Contact Ben Rose or Sammy Whittaker

Cobham - 16 High Street

Cooper Rose LLP has been instructed to market this prime retail investment in Cobham, Surrey.

  • Cobham, Surrey - one of the most desirable towns in the UK with an affluent catchment population

  • Located close to the junction of the A3 and M25 Motorway, 17 miles south-west of Central London

  • Prime trading position on the western side of the attractive High Street

  • Substantial retail property totalling 4,507 sq ft

  • Let on a new 15 year lease (no breaks) at a re-based rent to Pearl Chemist Limited

  • Long term potential for full or partial redevelopment (STPP)


Total current income: £83,000 per annum
Price:£1,500,000, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT
Net Initial Yield: 5.22%

Contact Giles Cooper or Andy Smith of Smith Coley