Gatehouse Bank completes £59.9m office acquisition in Aberdeen

Strength of Aberdeen property market results in record take-up levels and continues to attract investor interest.

Gatehouse Bank plc (Gatehouse), a wholesale Shariah compliant investment bank based in the City of London, has completed the £59.9 million acquisition of the Bridge View and Consort House in Aberdeen from Ulster Estates, a Northern Ireland based property company, representing a net initial yield of 7.15%. The 159,170 sq ft property is the largest and most successful office development in central Aberdeen, and is occupied and fully let to leading oil and gas service provider Petrofac as their North Sea office headquarters, as well as The Scottish Ministers (NHS), with an average weighted unexpired lease term of 14 years.

The property is split over six floors and provides some of the largest floor plates in the city. Comprising 142,379 sq ft and 550 on-site car spaces, Petrofac occupy the majority of the building which is home to over 1500 employees, comprises two parts; Bridge View, constructed in 1998, and Consort House, a purpose built extension developed in 2006.

Aberdeen sits at the heart of Europe’s oil and gas industry, which over the past 25 years has continued to drive the city’s performance as a high-prosperity, high performance market. As such, Aberdeen is recognised as an important component of the wider Scottish and UK economies and, according to the latest Centre for Cities Outlook report, is one of the most economically successful cities in the UK over the medium term.

Against this backdrop, Scott Nicol, Vice President of Real Estate at Gatehouse Bank commented:

“The Aberdeen office market has seen a greater take up of space last year than any other key regional centre outside the south east, and is likely to remain buoyant for the foreseeable future. The severe lack of quality, large floor plated Grade A space, has caused rental values to rise significantly. The fact that investors are typically seeking prime and long income deals in core regional city centre locations, with a strong tenant and assured security of income, means that this deal is a particularly significant acquisition for Gatehouse.”

With a global real estate portfolio in excess of £350 million, Gatehouse Bank is one of the most active non-institutional investors in the market and specialises in originating, structuring and funding investments in a Shariah compliant manner. To meet continuing investor demand for high quality property investments, Gatehouse provides leading advice and opportunities to investors across a diverse range of properties ranging from office, student and logistics sectors.

Blackcube Asset Management advised Ulster Estates and Gatehouse were advised by Nightingale Partners.