The 12 Deals Of Christmas: Where Have All The Office Deals Gone?
The story of big deals in 2024 was the return of retail and the impact of several huge hotel transactions, with the two sectors accounting for more than half of the top 12 UK deals of the year.
Hotels told the tale of the early part of the year, with several huge portfolio deals taking place in the opening months. Two of the biggest retail deals came in December, with Redevco’s retail park acquisition bolstering its powerhouse retail park business in Europe and Landsec continuing its focus on major retail destinations by snapping up 92% of Liverpool One.
But in a sign of the times, the 12 biggest deals of the year did not feature a single office transaction.
According to LSH, £11.2B of UK property assets changed hands during the third quarter, 1% below the Q2 total and 6% below the five-year trend.
Retail boasted a standout quarter, with £2.7B of assets changing hands during Q3, its strongest showing in more than seven years and the first time it outmatched both office and industrial on volume since 2011.
Offices once again remained the main drag on overall volume, with the Q3 office volume of £1.9B 44% below the five-year trend and the third successive sub-£2B quarter. However, central London offices had their best quarter since Q3 2023, thanks to a few big-ticket deals, the largest being Royal London Asset Management’s £180M purchase of Atlantic House, EC1.
Some big deals failed to make the top 12, including Elliott Management and Oval Real Estate's £346M purchase of part of the Langham Estate from Samuel Tak Lee and family, Blackstone’s £227M acquisition of the mixed retail and office space at 130-134 New Bond Street, the £192.5M purchase of One Triton Square by RLAM, which bought out British Land’s 50% stake in the joint venture, and the £180M Greycoat acquisition of 90 High Holborn from LabTech Investments.
So here is Bisnow's list, with seasonal thanks to JLL, Savills and Cushman & Wakefield for their data.
12. Abrdn Portfolio, £351M
In September GoldenTree Asset Management, the owner of Travelodge, acquired the majority of Abrdn Property Income Trust’s portfolio for £351M. The transaction included nearly all of the trust’s 39 properties, with the exception of land at Far Ralia in the Cairngorms. The London-listed trust informed its shareholders that the U.S. investment giant would purchase its Abrdn Property Holdings subsidiary. And the deal followed the collapse of a previous takeover bid by Custodian Property Income REIT earlier this year. Shareholders subsequently voted to approve a managed wind-down and asset sale for the trust.
11. Meadowhall Shopping Centre, Sheffield, £360M
Retail was one of the big stories of the year. Norges Bank Investment Management paid British Land £360M for its additional 50% ownership interest in the 1.4M SF Meadowhall in May, valuing the property at £720M. The property had £426M of debt at the time of the acquisition, and British Land remained as asset manager of the centre. “Despite being out of favour, we remain confident in the prime shopping centre sector, where rents and yields have rebased significantly,” Norges Bank Head of UK Real Estate Jayesh Patel said of the deal. British Land promptly reinvested around £240M in a portfolio of its new favourite asset class, retail parks.
10. UK AccorInvest Hotel Portfolio, £400M
Retail was nearly the biggest story of the year, but hotels trumped it. In May, Landsec, which has been repositioning toward major retail destinations, disposed of its entire hotel portfolio to property funds managed by Ares Management and its operating partner, EQ Group, for £400M in a cash sale. The portfolio comprises 21 assets let to AccorInvest, and the hotels are midscale or economy properties, with most of the portfolio’s value in central London. The majority of the other assets are in major UK city centres, including Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.
9. Sage Portfolio, £405M
U.S. private equity giant Blackstone sold more than 3,000 shared ownership homes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme in one of the biggest deals in the sector — and the largest involving shared ownership homes since their advent in 1990. The portfolio, which is spread across the UK, consists of shared ownership homes on 250 sites owned by Blackstone vehicle Sage Homes. USS' acquisition sparked the launch of Sparrow Shared Ownership, a registered social housing provider backed by capital from USS Investment Management.
8. Liverpool One, Liverpool, £490M
Leaving it late, Landsec put another retail centre on its Christmas list as it further committed to the sector by acquiring a 92% stake in shopping centre Liverpool One from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Grosvenor for a sum of £490M. The acquisition is in line with Landsec’s objective to grow its investment in major retail destinations, recycling the proceeds from its £464M of noncore sales earlier in the year, the company said. Following the deal, Landsec now owns seven of the top 30 shopping centres in the UK. In its most recent results, it said the retail portfolio was 96% occupied.
7. Retail Park Portfolio, £518M
When Redevco entered the UK retail park market in December, it didn’t mess around. The company acquired a portfolio of 16 retail parks across the UK for £518M. The portfolio was assembled by Oxford Properties via the M7 Real Estate specialist platform it acquired in 2021. Following the acquisition, Redevco manages approximately €5B in gross asset value across almost 200 retail park assets, predominantly in Belgium, Germany, Spain and the UK. The acquired portfolio encompasses approximately 2.1M SF.
6. Vistry Portfolio, £580M
In a further move into the UK’s housing market, Blackstone and its partner Regis acquired 1,750 new homes from housebuilder Vistry in a £580M deal. Vistry said in a release that the portfolio, focused primarily in the south-east of England and spanning 36 developments from Vistry’s former housebuilding land bank, will be managed by the single-family rental specialist Leaf Living, which is backed by funds managed by private equity giant Blackstone and Regis. The homes are to be presold in line with Vistry’s partnerships strategy of preselling circa 65% of all homes across the business.
5. Charles Street Portfolio, £600M
When Lone Star acquired family-owned property group Charles Street Buildings, a 40-asset portfolio, it was the first acquisition for the Lone Star Real Estate Fund VII, comprising mainly industrial properties as well as retail parks, supermarkets and offices in the East Midlands and London. The 6.3M SF portfolio entered the market in April and included the 575K SF Thurmaston Industrial Estates, the 1M SF Hilltop Industrial Estate in Bardon, and several offices in London on Matthew Parker Street, Jermyn Street and Curzon Street.
4. Columbia Threadneedle Portfolio, £674M
Columbia Threadneedle-run Balanced Commercial Property Trust agreed to a deal to sell for £673.5M, despite objections from its investment manager. The trust had been managed by Columbia Threadneedle since it was created in 2005. It began a strategic review in April after shareholders told it there was “need for change from the status quo.” Buyer Starwood Capital has inherited a portfolio that has tilted toward the industrial and retail warehousing sector after some strategic sales, which now account for half of the portfolio. Columbia Threadneedle thought more value was to be had, but the deal was approved.
3. Village Hotels Portfolio, £780M
The hotel deals done in 2024 were often very big, including Blackstone acquiring Village Hotels from travel and leisure investor KSL Capital Partners. Village Hotels owns and operates 33 properties representing 4,400 keys across the UK. In addition to accommodation, the hotels offer fitness clubs, dining venues and coworking spaces. KSL purchased the hospitality platform in a deal valued at £485M in 2014. James Seppala, head of real estate Europe at Blackstone, said it saw “great potential in lodging and leisure as a sector.”
2. Marriott Portfolio, £900M
U.S. investors KKR and Baupost acquired a 33-hotel portfolio operated under Marriott brands in the UK for £900M from the ADIA. The portfolio includes the London Marriott County Hall opposite the Houses of Parliament, as well as the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park. In 2013, ADIA bought a portfolio of 47 Marriott hotels from Royal Bank of Scotland for £640M, and this new deal includes properties from the 2013 transaction. A consortium comprising Société Générale, BAML and Deutsche Bank provided a £600M loan for the purchase.
1. PBSA Portfolio, £964M
Pipping the hotel sector for the top deal this year is a purpose-built student accommodation transaction, another living sector niche once lumped together with alternatives. Singapore-based real estate investment, development and property management company Mapletree Investments acquired 8,192 operational beds across 19 cities in the UK and Germany and an operating platform from Cuscaden Peak Investments. The portfolio includes a range of student accommodation in key university cities such as Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Oxford and York, alongside Bremen in Germany. The operating platform manages two brands, Student Castle and Capitol Students, and the transaction provided Mapletree with direct control of the portfolio.
