Crown Estate loses £8m on two prestigious city locations

THE Crown Estate made an £8 million loss when it sold two of its last prestigious Edinburgh properties, it was reported today.

Princes Exchange, whose tenants include the Bank of Scotland and leading legal firms, cost 59.4m to purchase and develop before it was sold to Germany's Invesco Real Estate for 55.7m at a loss of 3.7m.

It also bought 127 Princes Street in 1995 for 14,039,000 and sold it last year for 10,010,000, at a loss of almost 4m.

The Crown Estate reportedly said that the two loss- making sales were "part of the ongoing management of the portfolio and the re-orientation towards multi-let retail warehousing and shopping centres".