Swiss AFIAA Foundation for International Real Estate Investments has made another investment on the London property market. The company bought the “Schomberg House” office building in London for its portfolio as part of a share deal. The seller is PGIM Real Estate, the property investment manager of Prudential Financial, on behalf of institutional investors. Both parties agreed confidentiality with respect to the purchase price.
The property in Pall Mall 80 - 82 with approximately 3,500 m² rental space (approximately 37,300 ft²) was built in 1956 and is a historical building in a key location in London’s West End in St. James. It was renovated comprehensively in 2007. In addition, AFIAA sold the “Quartermile 2” office building in Edinburgh to UBS Real Estate for around c. €31.6 (28.5m GBP).
Ingo Bofinger, CEO at AFIAA, comments: “With the purchase of ,Schomberg House' and the sale of ,Quartermile', we are moving forward with our focused growth strategy. What is more, we have again demonstrated our ability to successfully carry out off-market transactions for our portfolio. We succeeded in reinvesting the proceeds from a property in Edinburgh which was no longer in line with strategy in the same currency area within a very short period of time.” Bofinger added: “Previously we were represented with two properties in London City. On the other hand, ,Schomberg House' is in London’s West End. This means that we have achieved diversification within the city. St. James is also one of the sub-markets with the highest level of stability in London. All these characteristics make the property an ideal addition to our portfolio.”
