The highly prominent Metro Building, 70,000 sq. ft. of Grade A office space located on Donegall Square South has been purchased by a Private Property Trust. The asset was sold by Lisney and Osborne King.

The property sold well in excess of its £21m asking price

Developed in 2003, the nine-storey building boasts a strong lineup of tenants including Capita, Johnston Publishing and Yell, in addition to two levels of underground car parking to accommodate 50 cars.

Nicky Finnieston, Investment Director at Lisney, commented:

“This deal rounds off a very busy summer period for us and the price achieved represents a great result for our client, the office sector in Belfast presents a great opportunity for investors and as such the level of competitive demand for this asset was not surprising”

“With strong occupier demand and significant rental growth in recent years the market presents a compelling narrative, this is our second large office investment sale of the summer having sold Obel 68 in July and we have seen a very diverse investor base look at these assets, a considerable positive for Belfast.”

Paul Henry, Director of Osborne King commented:

“The process has yielded an excellent result with active competitive bidding. The sales evidence is some of the strongest on record. With the Belfast office market having seen prime rents move from £15 per square foot to £21.50 over recent years the new purchaser has an excellent platform in the Metro to exploit its considerable reversionary potential.”

“The Metro Building is located in the heart of Belfast, the opportunity to purchase a building of this quality in this location doesn’t come along very often and we were delighted to have been involved in the sale.

BDO Northern Ireland was an advisor to the purchaser.