Solihull Office Building Fetches Pounds 10 M

LONDON- Morley Fund Management and Opus Land have achieved a sale price of £10 million for Paradigm, their recently completed 41,547-sf office development on Highlands Road, Solihull, West Midlands. The price reflects a net initial yield of 6.8%.

Tenant Paragon Finance has taken the building for 16 years at a rent of £18 ($28) per sf, and now the building has been sold to a private investor advised by Atis Real Weatheralls. Damian Lloyd of GVA Grimley was the vendor’s agent, and he said: “This deal is evidence of the intense interest still being shown in property by private investors. The property investment market is still being driven by a weight of money primarily from aggressive private investors who are, in turn, driven by current low costs of finance. As a result of pent-up demand, the market has strengthened in the Midlands as well as elsewhere in the UK and this shows no signs of immediate decline.”

As a result of this strong investor demand, GVA Grimley calculates that all Midlands property returns have improved since their low of 5.9% in November 2001 to stand at 10.4% annualised in September 2002.