British Land reports more office lettings and unchanged NAV
British Land has reported a very slight increase in NAV during the first half of its 2012/2013 financial year, at 596p – up 1p from a year earlier. The group said the value of its portfolio was almost unchanged year-on-year at £10.388bn (£10.337bn) but noted it had continued to outperform IPD benchmarks with total returns 170bp ahead and capital returns 200bp higher.
The group said it had produced good results in a tough economic environment. Its retail portfolio valuation declined by 1% over the period to £5.9bn but total returns outperformed the IPD All Retail benchmark by 130bp. The value of the offices portfolio increased by 2.2% to £3.8bn, which the group said was not only due to its focus on the right locations, but also to the quality of its customer services and the success of its development programme. Capital returns of 2.3% outperformed the All Office benchmark by 330bp.
The first letting at British Land’s West End offices development, 10 Portman Square, was also unveiled yesterday – investment management company Aspect Capital is to take up 24,250 sq ft on the top two floors of the seven-storey, 113,000 sq ft office building.
British Land and Blackstone have also announced that they have signed up Hill Dickinson to the Broadgate Tower. The law firm is to let 32,000 sq ft of the City office space available at the tower, on a ten-year lease – it will occupy levels six, seven and part of level eight, with an option to acquire the remaining 5,400 sq ft of office space on level eight. Headline rents for the deal are £43.50 per sq ft on levels six and seven, and £47.50 on level eight.
With this new letting, the 397,000 sq ft Broadgate Tower is now around 92% occupied. There is just over 34,000 sq ft of available office space remaining. Overall occupancy at Broadgate is 94.7%. CBRE advised Hill Dickinson, while Jones Lang LaSalle and Knight Frank acted on behalf of British Land and Blackstone.
