Potency Advisors

Tchenguiz’s last commercial deal in the UK was in May of last year when he bought Rainlodge, a student hall in Leeds for a price of almost eleven million. This demonstrated a yield of almost six percent.

The company then went through with a £171m sale and leaseback with the Sloan Capital company, an Irish group in property investment for tycoons in the horse racing industry.

The Consensus Group has also sold some of its assets in the UK over the past couple of years, most notable the Shell-Mex House in London for nearly £500m to the American firm, Westbrook.

The Standard Chartered building in London is to be bought by Vincent Tchenguiz, of the Consensus Group, for £200m in his first commercial property venture in the UK since the middle of last year. Currently owned by a Middle Eastern association, the building is 198,000 square feet in size and is located at 1 Basinghall Avenue.

The building is currently leased to Standard Chartered for £10m per year on a twenty year lease that had begun in 2007.

The company originally purchased the premises from the City of London Unit Trust which is managed by Schroder’s. The sale price at the end of 2005 was about £120m.

During these times of recession however, more and more firms are starting to rent their workplaces, many having decided to sell their own properties, moving into leased ones instead. In many areas such as Cambridge for example with declining office rentals landlords are finding the demand in desk rental a boost to their rental income. For more info on desk space Cambridge, click here.