In a sign of the growing confidence in the UK’s regional real estate markets post Brexit, Maya Capital, a specialist real estate investment firm, announces an agreement with a major institutional investor to deploy up to €54.5m (£50m) of capital in office buildings in regional cities across the UK. The new fund raising will operate separately from the c. €108.9m (£100m) portfolio already under management by Maya Capital with another institutional investor.
As part of the new deployment, Maya Capital has closed its first investment last week with a €4.4m (£4m) purchase of Bede House in Newcastle, a c.38,000 ft² multi- let office building at a net initial yield of c.8.6%.
Maya Capital is targeting UK office real estate outside London and the M25. Additional transactions will be completed in the coming months to reach a total deployment of €54.5m (£50m) by the end of 2018. The aim is to build a portfolio of UK secondary office assets targeting smaller size assets, where better pricing can be achieved due to the lack of investor competition.
David Pralong, Managing Partner of Maya Capital, commented: “We continue to be excited by the existing opportunities in the UK’s regional cities, where there is a combination of high yield and low vacancy rate, which compares favourably to London. Today’s announcement highlights the continued investor appetite for a niche and robust regional strategy targeting smaller asset sizes. We are delighted to have the backing of a top-tier institutional investor that has committed to our strategy, and look forward to executing further value driven transactions in the months to come.”
Maya was advised by Knight Frank on the Newcastle transaction.
