Property investment unaffected by general election

Uncertainty surrounding the outcome of next week’s general election has failed to dampen investment activity in the commercial property sector during the first quarter.

Property industry not dampened by the upcoming election. Picture: Jane Barlow

Across Scotland, total investment topped £575 million in the opening three months of 2015, an increase of 26 per cent compared with the first quarter a year earlier, according to property firm Lambert Smith Hampton’s (LSH) UK investment transactions report.

UK institutions dominated much of the activity, investing some £245.4m, while the retail and leisure sector accounted for just under half of the total volume invested north of the ­Border.

In all 35 deals were completed in the first quarter – eight more than the same period last year – while the average deal size also increased, from £16.8m in Q1 2014 to just over £16.4m in the latest period.

Bill Binnie, investment consultant in capital markets with LSH in Glasgow, said: “Despite the uncertainty of the outcome of the general election it is a strong set of figures in Q1 for Scotland.”

Some of the key deals in the first quarter included M&G Real Estate’s £72.4m purchase of 120 Bothwell Street, Glasgow from CS Euroreal, the £70m purchase of Clyde Shopping Centre in Clydebank by Edinburgh House Estates from Helical Bar and the purchase of Edinburgh’s Radisson Blu Hotel by Deka Immobilien from WG Mitchell in a deal worth £63.5m.

Across the UK as a whole, total investment climbed to £19.1bn in the opening three months, 59 per cent higher than the same time last year and a new record for a first quarter.

All of the main traditional asset classes – industrial, offices and retail – saw double-digit increases in investment compared to the same period last year.