Exchange Place 1, part of a trio of Grade A city centre offices in Edinburgh’s financial hub, has been sold for £47m to a German investment fund.
Exchange Place 1 has been bought by GLL Real Estate Partners Pan European Property Fund for £47 million with GVA James Barr acting for GLL.
The sale, together with the sale of Exchange Place 2 and 3 earlier this year, brings the combined total for the flagship city centre office campus to £83m.
The sale of Exchange Place 1 reflects a NIY yield of 5.57%, making it the biggest Scottish commercial property sale of 2017 so far.
Brought to the market by Aberdeen Asset Management early last year, JLL and Cushman and Wakefield acted jointly on the lettings and the sale of Exchange Place 1. The building is fully let to tenants including BlackRock, Hymans Robertson, Cameron Hume, Cundall Johnston and Evans Cycles.
Completed in 2009, Exchange Place comprises three separate Grade A multi-let office buildings, totalling close to 215,000 sq ft in the heart of the Exchange District, Edinburgh’s thriving financial and commercial hub.
The sale of Exchange Place is a boost for Edinburgh’s commercial property investment market following a strong 2016, underlining the strength of the capital and its attractiveness as a destination for investment. According to data from JLL, international investment, as a proportion of total investment, in Edinburgh’s office market increased to more than 90 per cent during 2016.
Nick Ireland, Co-Head, UK Direct Property at Aberdeen Asset Management said: “The sale of Exchange Place 1 has brought this successful long term project to a close for us. We were delighted with the quality of the tenants we secured and the level of investor interest clearly demonstrates the strength of demand for high quality assets in a strong city such as Edinburgh.”
