Deals | Property Week
The record for the highest capital value paid per square foot for a real estate asset in the UK has been smashed twice this week by two separate deals for jewellery stores on London’s Bond Street.
169 New Bond Street let to Piaget is the new record holder at £18,500/sq. ft.
A private UK investor has bought 169 New Bond Street, let to luxury watch and jewellery brand Piaget, for £65m, which equates to a capital value of £18,500/sq. ft. The deal for the 3,500 sq. ft. boutique store, which reflects a yield of 1.61%, represents by far the highest price paid per square foot for a UK real estate asset.
It breaks the record set earlier this week when Hong Kong tycoon Ian Ng paid more than £13,000/sq. ft. for Indian billionaire Nirav Modi’s new jewellery store at 31 Old Bond Street. Ng paid just under £40m for the 2,827 sq. ft. store, which was sold by a US investor.
The previous capital value record is understood to be around the £11,000/sq. ft. mark.
“These extraordinary sums are further evidence that certain investors are still seeking the right type of product in the West End’s luxury retail market,” one agent told Property Week.
CBRE was appointed by a Saudi Arabian family office earlier this year to seek a buyer for 169 New Bond Street on an off-market basis.
Piaget, which is owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, agreed a then record retail rent of £965/sq. ft. zone A for the store in 2009. That rental record has since been broken several times and is now held by Nirav Modi, which agreed to pay £1,750/sq. ft. for 31 Old Bond Street in February this year.
Cushman & Wakefield was appointed in March to sell 31 Old Bond Street at a guide price of £37m, which reflected a yield of 2.54%.
Ng’s acquisition is his third in the London market and follows the £36m purchase of 368 Oxford Street, let to Italian lingerie store Intimissimi, in June last year. Investment activity in Bond Street, which has traditionally attracted the highest capital values in London, was somewhat subdued last year, with only one deal, the £70m sale of 139 New Bond Street, completing. That store, which was sold by antique jeweller and owner-occupier SJ Phillips to Trophaeum Asset Management, was traded at a capital value of just under £7,000/ sq. ft.
Kieran D Cotter & Co advised the buyer of 169 New Bond Street and Savills represented the buyer of 31 Old Bond Street.
