The attraction of Shaftesbury (SHB) is the focus of the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) property portfolio on London’s West End; an area that visitors flock to and where supply is very restricted, which keeps rents and occupancy persistently high. The flip-side to this is that the opportunities to buy new properties are few and far between.
However, this week the Reit managed to bag the long-leasehold of 90-104 Berwick Street in Soho for £38.5m. The 84,000 sq ft property is currently under development and incorporates a 110-room hotel pre-let to Premier Inn, a pre-let supermarket and a further 14,500 sq ft of retail and restaurant space. Significantly, given Shaftesbury’s panache at using its extensive and concentrated ownership of properties to spruce up whole areas, it now owns half the frontages on Berwick Street. And footfall should rise following the arrival of Crossrail.