Kilpatrick Property Group secures deals in Castle Street

Developer Kilpatrick Property Group has reached £1m sales on units within Castle Street, Liverpool city centre.

The Glasgow-based company bought 10/18 Castle Street in summer 2008 for £2.05m and have spent £500,000 upgrading the Grade II-listed 14 Castle Street, as part of a rolling refurbishment programme.

The group has now completed three transactions, offering units with 250 year leases at nominal rents with great interest from owner managed SMEs being shown in the refurbished office suites.

The first office suite to be refurbished has been sold to FRD Risk Solutions, through a private SIPP, at a capital rate reflecting in excess of £180/sq ft. The accommodation extended to approximately 1,840 sq ft.

Kilpatrick has also sold the retail premises at 16 Castle Street to a private investment company. The property is let to Origin Rejuvenation Clinic and extends to 800 sq ft over ground floor and basement, until 2018. The sale price reflects an annual yield of 7.6%, again on the basis of a 250 year lease at a peppercorn rent.

These two latest deals follow the sale of 18 Castle Street earlier this year, again to a private investor SIPP. 18 Castle Street is let to Furness Building Society and the sale price reflected a net yield of 6.37%. The three deals total £1m.

Maurice Glen, managing director of Kilpatrick Property Group, said: "We have been extremely pleased with the quality and extent of refurbishment that has been implemented at the above property and this is reflected in the sale of the first floor office premises at a figure in excess of £180/sq ft at a time when the conventional leasing market is suffering from oversupply.

"Our approach from the outset has been to aim the individual office suites in Castle Street at small and medium size enterprises seeking to purchase their own accommodation and we continue to believe that demand for this type of product will remain reasonably robust.

"The sale of the individual retail investments on the ground floor again demonstrates generally improving market sentiment for commercial property investment product with the strength of location and lot size being the main driving forces of demand."

The property is being jointly marketed by Mason Owen and CBRE.