Purchase of Green Lanes Shopping Centre Barnstaple
15 February 2011
British Land Buys Green Lanes Shopping Centre, Barnstaple, for £30 million
The British Land Company PLC ("British Land") has exchanged contracts for the purchase of the leasehold interest in Green Lanes Shopping Centre in Barnstaple for £30 million.
Green Lanes is one of north Devon's principal shopping locations, providing 131,000 sq ft of retail space and attracting nearly 5.5 million visitors to the scheme each year.
It is virtually fully let (99% occupancy) and has 42 retail units. The centre is anchored by Bhs and Wilkinson with other key tenants including Top Shop/Top Man, Peacocks, New Look, Mothercare, Monsoon, M&Co and La Senza. Zone A rents range from £50 to £80 per square foot.
Green Lanes is the second shopping centre acquired by British Land in the last three months, and follows the £240 million purchase of the Drake Circus, a 570,000 sq ft shopping centre in Plymouth. It expands British Land's shopping centre portfolio to 12 and brings the total retail acquisitions made by the group since March 2010 to £340 million.
The purchase price represents an attractive net initial yield of over 8% with the scheme historically trading at investment yields as low as 5.5%.
Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail at British Land, said: "This transaction provides a highly attractive income return supported by sustainable rental levels. Green Lanes more than meets our criteria of what makes a strong retail asset - dominance of the local area; extensive catchment; accessibility for shoppers; affordable rents; and attractive unit configurations".
Enquiries:
Investor Relations
Sally Jones, British Land 020 7467 2942
Media
Pip Wood, British Land 020 7467 2838
Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group/ 020 7251 3801
Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group
Notes to Editors
About British Land
British Land is one of the UK's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts with total assets, owned or under management, valued at £14.5 billion (British Land share £9.3 billion), as at 31 December 2010. Our property portfolio is focused on high quality retail locations and central London offices which we believe are well placed to benefit from growing customer demand. We have among the highest occupancy rates and average lease lengths of the major UK REITs at 98.1% and 12.1 years respectively.
Retail assets account for 66% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites. Our portfolio comprises over 26 million sq ft of retail space across 89 retail warehouse properties, 99 superstores, 11 shopping centres and 10 department stores. Our portfolio benefits from flexible planning consents making the portfolio adaptable to a wide range of formats. This allows us to actively manage our portfolio and deliver the most attractive space to both retailers and consumers.
Central London offices currently comprise 32% of the portfolio. Our portfolio comprises 6 million sq ft of office space and includes a 50% share in Broadgate, the premier office campus in the City and Regent's Place, an office estate in the West End. During 2010, we committed to a significant development programme in central London which, on the basis of current estimates of values at completion, increase the weighting of offices in the group's portfolio from 32% to nearly 40%. These developments, which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space in the City and West End by 2014, include: a new 700,000 sq ft building for UBS at Broadgate; the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district; and the 500,000 sq ft NEQ building, which will complete the Regent's Place estate in the West End. The aggregate development cost, including land and interest is expected to be £1.5 billion, of which British Land's share is £1.0 billion.
Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com
This information is provided by RNS