Belfast's Metro building sold for '˜well in excess' of £21m asking price

Located on the corner of Donegall Square South and Linenhall Street the 70,000sqft of Grade A office space has been acquired by a private property trust for a sum described as “well in excess” of the £21m asking price.

Developed in 2003, the nine-storey building boasts a strong line up of tenants including Capita, News Letter owner Johnston Publishing and Yell, in addition to two levels of underground car parking.

“This deal rounds off a very busy summer period for us and the price achieved represents a great result for our client,” said Nicky Finnieston, investment director at Lisney.

“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, he said the market was busy and exciting.

“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 said: “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 were advisors to the purchaser.