British Land is pleased to announce that since the half year results in November, it has completed on the acquisition of three high quality retail parks for a total of £94m and sold its 50% stake in a retail park in Preston for £30m. These deals are in line with our strategy to actively recycle capital and consolidate our position as the UK’s largest owner and operator of retail parks, strengthening our ability to sign portfolio leasing deals and enhance returns.

Summary of deals

• Acquisition of the Capitol Retail and Leisure Park, Preston for £51.5m, representing a net initial yield (NIY) of 8.43%. The 300,000 sq ft park is let to a good mix of retailers including Next, Home Bargains and Boots. It is the most prominent retail park in the area and benefits from direct access to Preston city centre and the M6 and M65 motorways.
• Acquisition of Solartron Retail Park, a 90,000 sq ft retail park in Farnborough for £35m (7.65% NIY). The park is fully let to a strong mix of retailers including Lidl, Pets at Home and DFS, and benefits from an excellent southeast location within a growing and affluent catchment where retail supply is constrained.
• Acquisition of DFS, 442 Newmarket Road, a 20,000 sq ft prime retail warehouse in Cambridge for £7.35m (7.14% NIY), which sits immediately adjacent to the B&Q we acquired last year. This purchase offers a secure income stream with the potential for a longer-term life sciences redevelopment in a strategic location.
• Sale of our 50% stake in Deepdale Retail Park, Preston to Melford Capital for £30.3m (7.5% NIY/BL share), in line with our strategy of actively recycling capital.

Kelly Cleveland, Head of Strategy and Investment at British Land, said: “With retailers increasingly focused on the role of their stores, retail parks have emerged as a preferred format, due to their compatibility with omni channel retail, their affordability and appeal to online resilient businesses. This is driving good occupational demand across the portfolio reflected in our 97% occupancy and growing ERVs.”

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About British Land

Our portfolio of high quality UK commercial property is focused on London Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment assets throughout the UK. We own or manage a portfolio valued at £14.1bn (British Land share: £9.6bn) as at 30 September 2022 making us one of Europe’s largest listed real estate investment companies.

We create Places People Prefer, delivering the best, most sustainable places for our customers and communities. Our strategy is to leverage our best in class platform and proven expertise in development, repositioning and active management, investing behind two key themes: Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment.

Our three Campuses at Broadgate, Paddington Central and Regent’s Place are dynamic neighbourhoods, attracting growth customers and sectors, and offering some of the best connected, highest quality and most sustainable space in London. We are delivering our fourth Campus at Canada Water, where we have planning consent to deliver 5m sq ft of residential, commercial, retail and community space over 53 acres. Our Campuses account for 65% of our portfolio.

Retail & Fulfilment accounts for 35% of the portfolio and is focused on retail parks which are aligned to the growth of convenience, online and last mile fulfilment. We are complementing this with urban logistics primarily in London, focused on development-led opportunities.

Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. Our approach is focused on three key pillars where British Land can create the most benefit: Greener Spaces, making our whole portfolio net zero carbon by 2030, Thriving Places, partnering to grow social value and wellbeing in the communities where we operate and Responsible Choices, advocating responsible business practices across British Land and throughout our supply chain, and maintaining robust governance structures.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com