WELPUT, the specialist real estate fund managed by Schroder Real Estate and advised by Quintain Limited, has secured a number of lettings at 3 St James’s Square, the trust’s prominent 51,747 sq ft office building in the heart of St James’s. Total occupancy at 3 St James’s Square now stands at around 50 per cent.
The deals follow the practical completion of major refurbishment works in 2015, to deliver a high quality office building. The newly refurbished building sits behind a Portland Stone and brick façade with impressive views across St James’s Square and the West End. The office building comprises a brand new enlarged reception and ten floors of office accommodation with private terraces from the 5th floor up. Following completion of the extensive refurbishment works the building was launched to the leasing market at a guide rent of £135 per sq ft.
Lettings in the building have been completed to a range of international tenants comprising almost 50% of the space by ERV. Tenants have included hedge funds, family offices and international developers from France, Italy, Switzerland and India. Rents of up to £160 per sq ft have been achieved on the best space in the building and a guide of £110 per sq ft on the remainder.
At Stirling Square, 5/7 Carlton Gardens SW1, WELPUT has agreed an early surrender of the lease to the second floor comprising 14,261 sq ft. This is the first floor to return to WELPUT’s control since the building was let in 1999. The surrender allows WELPUT to refurbish the space to a top quality grade A specification in response to strong occupier demand, before launching to the leasing market.
Meanwhile WELPUT is also progressing a major refurbishment of 20 St James’s Street which it acquired in 2015 to deliver 55,000 sq ft of top specification offices in 2018.
WELPUT remains the top performing UK real estate fund over ten years, with a total return of 13.5% per annum (source: AREF/IPD UK Pooled Property Fund Index, December 2015), while it was announced Winner of the Association of Real Estate Funds Award for Five Year Risk-Adjusted Returns in both 2014 and 2015. In 2012 WELPUT won the IPD European Property Investment Award for UK Specialist Fund for performance measured over three years. In 2015, WELPUT continued its pattern of strong returns with a total return of 23.1% compared with its benchmark* return of 20.5%.
*Central London & Inner London Offices segments of the IPD Quarterly Universe
