1st June 2016

Ediston and Europa complete the purchase of Guildford office campus for £54 million

Ediston Real Estate and Europa Capital acquire Buildings 1000, 2000 and 3000, Cathedral Hill, Guildford for a combined purchase price of £54 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 7.63%.

Buildings 1000 and 2000 were acquired from M&G in December 2015 for £40 million. The remaining office building at Cathedral Hill, Building 3000, was acquired from AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets, acting on behalf of its clients, in May 2016 for around £15 million.

Cathedral Hill comprises 155,000 sq. feet of offices built in 2001. The three buildings are prominently located adjacent to the A3 dual carriageway. The combined property consists of modern office accommodation with 15,000 to 20,000 sq. feet floorplates. The buildings are multi-let to Avaya, Regus, GCL Solicitors and VI (UK) Limited. The combined property has a range of lease expiries from 2016 to 2021.

Danny O’Neill, Chief Executive at Ediston Real Estate, commented, “This acquisition is the sixteenth property we have acquired within our joint venture vehicles with Europa and continues the strategy of buying well located assets with value add potential. Having control of the three buildings at Cathedral Hill provides us with various interesting strategies to unlock value and deliver good performance to Europa’s investors.

James Fortescue, Director at Europa Capital, added, “This latest purchase of Building 3000 consolidates our ownership of Cathedral Hill and gives us additional asset management opportunities to capitalise upon. We now look forward to creating an even more attractive urban office environment for occupiers.

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