Overseas developers looking to buy more properties in London

London’s property market is as tight as ever at the moment, and there is increasingly more and more interest in the market from foreign investors. One example is of the realty developer, Lodha Group, who are based in Mumbai are now looking to buy more properties in central London after purchasing MacDonald House from the Canadian Government in the city. The cost of the purchase of MacDonald House is being over 300 million pounds, equating to around Rs 3,000.

Lodha Group’s strategic plan is to focus on both London and Mumbai as their two main markets. They are particularly interested in concentrating on residential and commercial assets, rather than hotel properties, as mentioned by Abhinandan Lodha, the deputy managing director of Lodha Group.   

As with many of the foreign buyers investing in property in London, Lodha Group are not interested in investing in other European cities and prefer to stay within the boundaries of London’s safe haven. Lodha Group are increasingly making more of a presence in the London market and have now acquired an office space of over 1,000 sq ft in Eaton Square to house the UK side of its business. Lodha Group are actually the first Indian property developer to acquire office space for a realty project development. They hope to launch their London project within the next 6-9 months and are hopeful of a 20% internal rate of return over the next 4-5 years. 

As said by Christina Weguelin, Acquisition Surveyor at Morgan Pryce, “London is increasingly considered as a safe haven for investors and developers, especially central London where we as a company find ourselves up against foreign bids on many investment opportunities in the commercial property market.”

This news was brought to you by Morgan Pryce, a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.