The Baskerville House office has been sold in Birmingham for £40 million in a landmark move within the city’s commercial property sector.
The office, which brought in a series of 100 per cent equity bids, was eventually sold to Hermes Real Estate Investment Management (HREIML). The interesting factor in the sale was that over half of the bidders did not have any assets linked to the city, with even two investors being from the US and the Middle East.
Ed Gamble, senior director at CBRE, who handled the sale of the building, said to Estates Gazette: “This deal illustrates a sea-change in the way investors are viewing the regional property market. Investors are finally waking up to the lack of office development and the absorption of Grade A office stock in Birmingham: the bottom of the occupation market is now in sight. The fact we are getting newcomers to the regional property scene is also encouraging. And who said that overseas investors were focusing only on London? They’re wrong.”
Analysts have suggested that the big difference in yields between London and offices across the UK may be responsible for this new interest in the commercial property sector within other regional cities. Office buying was the lowest in Birmingham that it had been in 15 years, and so analysts hope that this upwards trend will continue in the city for the rest of 2013.
Mr Gamble added: “Let’s not get over excited, though. Investors are not paying over the odds for assets. Sensible pricing is the order of the day.”
Baskerville House is a 196,000 sq ft Grade II listed site. CBRE also recently managed to sell Monkspath Business Park, a multi-let industrial estate in Solihull, for £18.25 million.
£40 million commercial property sale in Birmingham is a ‘turning point’
