LondonMetric sells retail park, buys warehouse

LondonMetric Property announced on Monday that it has sold a retail park in Warrington for £6.6m, at a net initial yield of 5.4%, and acquired an 89,000 sq ft distribution warehouse in Hemel Hempstead for £8.3m, at a net initial yield 6.4%.

The FTSE 250 firm said the Fordton retail park in Warrington comprises 20,200 sq ft and is let to Aldi, Greggs, Betfred, Barnardo's and Costa.

There is an adjoining pub which has recently been developed and sold off on a long leasehold.

LondonMetric said the weighted unexpired lease term is 14.8 years, and the sale is marginally ahead of March 2016 book value.

In Hemel Hempstead, the recently refurbished distribution warehouse is located on Maylands Business Park, close to junction 8 of the M1 and junction 21A of the M25.

The warehouse is let to shop concept company ITAB at a rent of £6.24 per square foot, and has an unexpired lease term of 8.3 years.

The next rent review is in December 2019.

“We continue to recycle equity from our mature retail parks into well located logistics assets, which we are confident will benefit from the ongoing structural changes impacting occupiers and deliver superior rental growth,” said LondonMetric chief executive Andrew Jones.