A RETAIL park in Co Down was acquired by the Harry Corry Pension Fund for £8.7 million during the summer, according to a new report from Lambert Smith Hampton.
The Investment Transactions Northern Ireland (ITNI) Bulletin named the sale of the Clandeboye Retail Park in Bangor by Columbia Threadneedle as the north’s biggest deal during the third quarter of 2019.
But the report has revealed that July to September was one of the weakest quarters for commercial property deals in the past five years, some 71 per cent below the five-year quarterly average.
London-based investment firm Columbia Threadneedle originally acquired the asset in 2013 after the north Down retail park had been placed into receivership by the former Anglo Irish Bank.
Clandeboye Retail Park had been owned by Portaferry-based developer Paul Neill’s company, Turnstile Developments. Anglo reportedly took control of the property over a debt believed to be in the region of £37m.
The retail park is the latest in a series of similar investments made by the Harry Corry Pension Fund. Two years ago the fund acquired the Valley Retail Park in Newtownabbey and Great Northern Retail Park in Omagh. The latter had an asking price of £10m.
The Clandeboye retail asset was among the £19.4m of deals done in the north between July and September, a quarter dominated by retail transactions.
Other notable commercial property sales included Wetherspoon’s purchase of Revolución de Cuba on Arthur Street, Belfast for £3.3m, and the sale of 40-46 Bow Street in Lisburn for £850,000.
A building on Queen Street in Belfast city centre, originally marketed last year for £1.25m, sold for £950,000 according to the ITNI report.
Despite the subdue nature of the quarter, the sale of Crescent Link Retail park in Derry for £30m at the start of October is set to significantly boost the overall figure for 2019.
Manchester based David Samuel Properties acquired the asset from Banbridge company Lotus Group, one of a series of significant commercial property investments it has made in the UK in recent weeks.
The transaction is the biggest retail property deal in the north for two years.
The 260,000 sq ft Derry retail park was placed on the market last year with an asking price of £40.5m, some 11 years after it was sold for around £92m.
Director of capital markets at Lambert Smith Hampton, Martin McCloy, said the performance of the commercial property market in the third quarter fell below expectations.
“Activity in the final quarter is expected to be significantly stronger with over £31m worth of deals already completed in the first three weeks of October, including the sale of Crescent Link Retail Park.
“Retail activity is expected to dominate the latter half of 2019 and has the potential to retain its position as dominant asset class should Sprucefield Retail Park also be sold in Q4, breaking the dominant run of the office sector year to date.
“That said, city centre office investments remain the most in demand asset class due to the continued strength of the office occupier market. We expect that the annual total for 2019 will exceed the £210m mark, exceeding both 2018 volume and the ten year annual average.”
Mr Mc Cloy added said that investment in the north had been slowed by a combination of local and national political uncertainty over the past three years.
“While there is evidence that investor activity has declined post-referendum, the market is not in as poor a condition as activity may suggest and demand for commercial property remains,” he said.
