Regent Road retail on the block

Agent Knight Frank is seeking offers in excess of £3.5m for Pets at Homes’ 100 Regent Road store in Salford, immediately adjacent to Henley Investment Management’s proposed 3,300-home neighbourhood.

According to the particulars, the prominent asset brings in £200,000 a year in rent, at £15.86/sq ft. The building is a 13,700 sq ft retail warehouse, with 1,100 sq ft of first floor office space.

Pets at Home has a 15-year full repairing and insuring lease, with five-yearly upwards only rent reviews, agreed 18 months ago.

Holly McLeman, senior surveyor at Knight Frank, said: “We are delighted to be bringing this sale to the market. With a superb location just outside the city centre on Regent Road, a strong national tenant and the wider improvements and development happening across the area, this is a really appealing investment opportunity with solid long‑term fundamentals.”

It is understood that Pets at Home has spent around £1.5m on refurbishment at the asset, which has an EPC B rating.

What is available is purely the long leasehold on the building, which is on offer from a private investor. The land is on a long leasehold held by neighbour Sainsbury’s, and the freehold is held by Salford City Council.

A sale at £3.5m would reflect a net initial yield of 5.4% and reversionary yield of 6.5%.

The store sits close to Henley’s proposed Regent Park programme, where the developer plans to replace around 118,000 sq ft of existing retail park space with 3,300 homes, 86,000 sq ft of retail and 10,000 sq ft of commercial space.

The scheme, which is to include 10 towers, aroused some controversy on its progress through the planning system last year, with a summer deferral before the plans were finally approved in November.