Another week, another disposal by Land Securities. Britain's largest listed property company is poised to sell one of its largest development projects to a Middle Eastern private-equity fund for £234m. The three-acre site between the Strand and Temple tube station already has planning permission for 147 flats, a hotel and an office block.
It will be Land Securities' third sale of the year. In February, it sold the island site opposite Victoria station for £163m into a new joint venture with the Canadian state pension fund, which will now shoulder half the vast development costs associated with the £1bn mixed-use project. And last month it sold off a down-at-heel shopping centre in Liverpool for £76.5m. All three deals are about reducing risk – development risk in London and risk of tenant default in Liverpool.
