UK market lures investors
Wednesday May 27 2009
Equity rich Irish investors are taking advantage of the yield shift and strength of the Euro to revisit the UK investment market.
Ex-Ireland and Lion's rugby star Paul Wallace, who heads up the Dublin office of finance firm Bircroft, reports that there is still debt available for well-let properties in the UK and Ireland.
Bircroft is currently mandated to raise £300m (€338m) of debt for clients in the UK and Euro zone.
"It is a much tougher market and parameters have changed but we have definitely detected increased appetite for investing in prime UK property from Northern and Southern Irish-based investors.
"There has been a large increase in Irish investor demand in prime well-let West End property. I understand there were close to half-a-dozen Irish bidders on 1 Old Queen Street, London, SW1, which had more than 30 bids on it.
"We had indicative terms of 75pc loan to purchase price for one Irish client due to the covenant."
