Return of West End office rush

LONDON property entrepreneur Nick Leslau has sold a batch of buildings for £263m, including one with a slice of Princess Diana history.

Buyer Hermes, the multi-billion pound pension fund manager which runs the BT scheme, signed up for the buildings just 10 days after first expressing an interest, a sign institutional investors are ravenous for bigger exposure to commercial property investments.

The seven properties include four in the West End, the biggest being Holborn Gate on High Holborn - a 145,000-square foot modernist glass block - let to Government departments and PR firm Financial Dynamics.

But it is 3 -5 Burlington Gardens which carries royal cachet.

The basement houses Italian restaurant Cecconi's, haunt of the rich and famous including the late 'People's Princess' and, more recently, Madonna.

Leslau sold the portfolio through Prestbury, according to Property Week magazine, the firm he runs and co-owns with fellow North Londoner Nigel Wray.

They are thought to have made a multi-million pound profit on the deal, only part of a holding from various acquisitions which include £600 million splashed out over the past year on buildings from Equitable Life and Irish developer Green Property.

The sale price means Hermes can expect an initial net yield of only 6.5%, relatively low for a commercial property investment. But Hermes' head of property, Rupert Clarke, told the Evening Standard: 'There is a strong West End market at the moment with a revival of occupational interest.'

Included in the deal are MacMillan House on Kensington High Street and offices in Bedford Street and Chandos Place, both in Covent Garden.

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund is considering selling Industrious, the UK's second-largest industrial property landlord, for more than £700m, two years after backing a management buyout of the firm, then operating as Saville Gordon Estates, for nearly £500m.

Funds that invest in commercial property can be found in the 'specialist' sector of our unit trust finder.

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