LONDON-Great Portland Estates has added to its central London portfolio with the pounds 16 million ($25 million) purchase of 100,000 sf of offices at Metropolis House, 39-45 Tottenham Court Road. It plans the refurbish the currently empty building.

LONDON-Final figures from the authoritative IPD Index show that property produced total returns of 9.7% in 2002, comfortably outperforming bonds, equities and cash.

LONDON- Development Securities has bought a retail warehouse investment in Formby, Lancashire, and sold a small central London office investment as part of the process of rebalancing its investment portfolio.

LONDON-Quintain has sold Chaucer House, a 20,700-sf office building on London's South Bank, for pounds 5 million ($8 million), booking a pounds 1 million ($1.6 million) loss in the process.

LONDON-FPDSavills has extended it international coverage by forming an association with Palmer McCormack, one of Ireland's top commercial property consultants.

LONDON-Cyril Leonard has replaced Strutt & Parker as the UK member of TCN Worldwide, the network of independent brokerage firms. Strutt & Parker quit earlier this year along with the other European members of the network to form a rival organisation, the European Property Alliance.

LONDON-Matrix Securities has bought the freehold of three office buildings at the Capability Green business park in Luton, Bedfordshire. The pounds 19.3 million ($30 million) deal reflects an initial yield of 8.22%.

LONDON-Workspace Group has bought three more London sites to add to its portfolio of small business units for pounds 14.75 million ($23 million).