215,000 sq ft
The portfolio is geographically spread around the UK with half located in Scotland and the remainder in England. It’s primary purpose is to generate a sustainable income stream for Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust to reinvest into the maintenance of historic buildings and chattels which are available for the public to view. Our focus has therefore been to keep voids to a minimum, whilst driving rental growth and monitoring non-recoverable expenditure.
Buccleuch Property has asset managed the portfolio for over a decade in which time the investment strategy adopted an industrial focus which has resulted in strong capital value appreciation, low vacancy rates and rental growth to produce an attractive income yield.
£18million
value
£1.5m
contracted rent
92%
occupied
10%
yield on cost
70
tenants
9
properties
2.165m sq ft
In 2015 Buccleuch were appointed as Asset Managers for an offshore owned portfolio comprising 13 properties located in South Yorkshire, West Midlands and Gloucester. The portfolio was established in 2003 and the main drivers for the owners are to keep voids to a minimum, drive rental levels where possible and to ensure the portfolio remains well maintained and compliant with current and emerging legislation.
Our role involves monitoring rent collection, appointing and monitoring the performance of letting agents, recommending Capital Expenditure projects where this demonstrates a benefit to the portfolio or can enhance rental income, dealing with lease expiries and dilapidations and undertaking tenant re-gear and lease renewal opportunities. We also provide Service Charge budgets each year for the multi-let properties and have close co-ordination with insurance brokers to ensure the properties are adequately insured and that any perceived risks are mitigated. Portfolio records are diligently maintained and regular reports are issued to the owners to ensure that they can track portfolio performance.
£100 million
approximate value
£7.8m
contracted rent per annum
95%
of properties are let
157 tenants
117 of which are at Thorncliffe Park, Sheffield
32%
of contracted rent across the portfolio is at Thorncliffe Park, Sheffield
Top 10
tenants across portfolio comprise 52% of the passing rent
415,000 sq ft
In 2021 Buccleuch were approached by a longstanding contact based abroad who already owned a small UK portfolio. They had successfully bid on a portfolio of 4 industrial properties in South Wales and given our previous relationship they invited us to asset manage the sites for them. We recommended a managing agent, and began to liaise with the client’s preferred solicitor and insurance broker to become familiar with the portfolio during the due diligence phase. We also engaged with the appointed building surveyor and acquisition surveyor purchasing the property for the client and ensured that we inspected the sites prior to the purchase completing. This was particularly important given Covid restrictions at the time of purchase prevented the client from inspecting personally.
Post completion we have engaged with the tenants and arranged regular property inspections, intending to understand their respective businesses and to develop the landlord and tenant relationship. All rents and insurance premiums are being demanded by the managing agent under our supervision and we are providing quarterly reports to the client. Two of the assets share common facilities and we inherited a service charge budget from the former owner, which has been considered and re-worked to better represent current occupation requirements and ownership.
£14 million
capital value
£1.2m
rental income
100%
occupied
4 sites
4 tenants
