Barings has sold Haslemere Industrial Estate to real estate private equity investor Westbrook for £12.75 million.
Barings acquired the estate in Bishop’s Stortford, an affluent London commuter town in Hertfordshire, on behalf of a UK-based private pension fund client in January 2016.
The 74,467 sq ft property comprises 13 units, ranging from 3,150 to 13,732 sq ft, 12 of which are let to 10 tenants, with the final one under offer.
Haslemere Industrial Estate is situated close to the town centre and in an area with limited capacity for new supply. It is 11 miles from London Stansted Airport, Britain’s fourth busiest airport, which serves around 18 million passengers a year with a cargo tonnage of over 214,000 metric tonnes on average a year. The airport offers national distribution and cargo transfer between major European and international airports, currently serving over 200 worldwide destinations.
Darren Hutchinson, Managing Director and Head of UK Real Estate Transactions at Barings, said: “Having successfully executed our business plan, we are pleased to have reached agreement on this disposal to Westbrook. The rental and capital value growth over our period of ownership has been strong and reinforces why Industrial and Logistics remains one of our preferred sectors for further investment.”
Gunther Deutsch, Managing Director and Head of European Real Estate Transactions at Barings, said: “This sale reflects the investor appetite for the Industrial and Logistics sector—which, while slowed, still remains strong in the UK and across Europe. We continue to be very active in the sector and are currently working on a secured logistics pipeline representing a volume in excess of €640m. We continue to seek out new industrial and logistics investments in developer joint ventures or forward transactions in the UK and in our other priority markets, such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Spain and Italy.”
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