Future Focused

Aviva Investors is poised to sell its mixed-use block at 327-329 Oxford Street in Mayfair to Hines for around £130m.

Hines is understood to have beaten off competition from a number of other bidders, including a consortium between China Estates and Morgan Capital, as well as German investor/developer Art-Invest Real Estate.

Aviva had instructed Knight Frank to sell the 37,440 sq ft building, which is situated between Oxford Street and New Bond Street, with a £130m asking price tag in November, as part of a plan to raise money for its development pipeline, by focusing on fewer locations.

The building features a ground-floor shop, which is currently let to fashion retailer Next until the Summer of 2020, and upper office space.

“The fund in which the property is held is increasing its allocations into assets with secure income streams, including pre-let office and hotel investments in Cambridge and Manchester, which are among the key locations in our real estate investment strategy,” the spokesman said.

“We continue to have a good appetite for prime retail assets in cities with strong economic fundamentals, including those that are attractive tourist and leisure destinations. However, we will sell properties when we can achieve an attractive return on behalf of our clients, and believe the proceeds can be better redeployed elsewhere, including our strong pipeline of development opportunities in London.”

The building is the third major asset in the West End that Aviva has sold in almost a year and a half. Others included Palantir Technologies’ headquarters at 20 Soho Square, which Aviva sold to a private European investor for £117m in June 2018; and the neighbouring 25 Soho Square, which the institution sold to Royal London Asset Management for £75.3m last May.

Aviva told its investors that its fund’s strategy had evolved in line with that of the wider business to “focus on fewer locations”.

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