Addington Capital has partnered with BauMont Real Estate Capital (BauMont) as BauMont completes its maiden investment in the U.K. , acquiring a residential portfolio from a private family office on behalf of BauMont Real Estate One SCSp (BREO). The portfolio includes 182 apartments of mostly converted Victorian and Edwardian houses in South London let on assured shorthold tenancies. The portfolio has been acquired for an undisclosed sum in the region of £37m.
The residential portfolio consists of 35 freehold buildings comprising 182 apartments. The majority are located in well-connected South London locations popular with commuters with a remainder mainly in prime North West London locations. Addington's sister company AddLiving, the residential management and leasing business, will provide property management services.

Natalie Harrison, U.K. Investment Director at BauMont, said: “Given its characteristics, the portfolio will be resilient and offer well-located, good quality affordable homes in an undersupplied segment of the market. We are delighted to be working with Addington who are experienced in managing this type of portfolio and have an excellent track record.”

Matthew Allen, Principal of Addington Capital said: “We continually look for value-add opportunities in the sector and have recently been focused on the Greater London residential market, which has been subdued for many years but offers strong fundamentals. This portfolio offers opportunities through the refurbishment of the existing stock and new development. We are delighted to be working with the BauMont team.”

CBRE advised the vendor and Knight Frank advised the purchaser.

Posted in News on 20 Sep, 2019

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All 27 one- and two-bedroom residential apartments in Addington Capital’s newly re-developed apartment block at Headingley Park, Leeds are now under offer within 2 weeks of launch.

Launched and managed by ADDLiving, the specialist residential management and leasing company, this is the fourth block Addington Capital, has redeveloped on the Headingley Park site, which it first acquired in JV in August 2014. Stockdale House is now the only remaining office building on the estate. Park House, the fourth building takes the number of residential units ADDLiving manages at Headingley Park to 152.

Headingley Park is in a beautiful parkland location of about 5.5 acres which is easily accessible to Leeds city centre. It has been redeveloped to the highest quality and has attracted strong interest from Leeds' growing young professional market.

Erdal Kacar, Head of Operations at ADDLiving said, “Leeds has an estimated population of around 780,000 which makes it one of the top four largest cities in the UK. It has a vibrant student and young professional population, but a shortage of suitable quality property to rent. We have been overwhelmed at the take up in the first two weeks of launch.”

The news bears out a report just produced by international law firm CMS “Urban Being – The Future of City Living” which surveyed 6,500 people living and working in either London, Manchester, Glasgow, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris to uncover the preferences of consumers when it comes to their living environment. The report revealed that:

With 67% of respondents across all the cities either in debt or just breaking even each month, saving for a deposit has become more difficult than ever. As a result the report claims:

• 56% of respondents agreed that owning a property is becoming less important
• 69% believing that their government should encourage more homes being available for rent
• Superfast internet is the most important requirement in accommodation
• Energy conservation is a priority -with smart meters to control energy use and electric vehicle charging points as the two most popular requests
• 56% of milennials want to be able to keep pets in their homes

Kacar continued: “As people, the younger generation in particular, are placing more value on experiences rather than things, the rental sector will continue to boom. Customer service will become even more important. I am delighted we have met such demand at our Headingley site. And yes- we allow pets too!”

Headingley is one of three Yorkshire PRS schemes redeveloped/refurbished by Addington Capital and managed by ADDLiving. Addington acquired, refurbished and sold 183 units in joint venture at Waterside, Leeds and also has a large PRS scheme in Sheffield: Velocity Village of 371 apartments, which ADDLiving manages.

Posted in News on 16 Sep, 2019

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ADDLiving, the specialist residential management and leasing company has successfully launched 27 one- and two-bedroom residential apartments in the newly redeveloped apartment block at Headingley Park, Leeds and on Day One of the launch has secured 23 apartments under offer. The apartments are available for rent from the end of August and will be managed by ADDLiving.

This is the fourth block ADDLiving’s sister company, Addington Capital, has redeveloped on the Headingley Park site, which it first acquired in JV in August 2014, leaving Stockdale House the only remaining office building on the estate. Park House, the fourth building takes the number of residential units ADDLiving manages at Headingley Park to 152.

Headingley Park is in a beautiful parkland location of about 5.5 acres which is easily accessible to Leeds city centre. It has been redeveloped to the highest quality and has attracted strong interest from Leeds' growing young professional market.

Erdal Kacar, Head of Operations at ADDLiving said, “Leeds has an estimated population of around 780,000 which makes it one of the top four largest cities in the UK. It has a vibrant student and young professional population, but a shortage of suitable quality property to rent. We have been overwhelmed at the take up on Day One of the Launch and believe the rest of the units will be snapped up quickly.”

Headingley is one of three Yorkshire PRS schemes redeveloped/refurbished by Addington Capital and managed by ADDLiving. Addington acquired, refurbished and sold 183 units in joint venture at Waterside, Leeds and also has a large PRS scheme in Sheffield: Velocity Village of 371 apartments, which ADDLiving manages.

Posted in News on 29 Aug, 2019

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Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has recruited David Dalrymple as a salaried partner focussing on asset management. Dalrymple joins from Columbia Threadneedle Property Investments where he was a senior asset manager specialising in the UK Real Estate Market.

David will be primarily responsible for looking after assets in the office sector.

At Columbia Threadneedle, David gained high levels of experience in all sectors of the market, namely offices, retail and industrial. He was Lead Asset Manager on the highly successful “UK Property Select Fund II”, a close ended private equity vehicle launched in 2013. Within this fund, he worked on transforming schemes such as Coda Studios (Fulham), Vantage London (Brentford), The Hat Factory (Camden) and Caldecotte Lake Business Park (Milton Keynes). He was also at the forefront of the flexible leasing evolution at CTI, developing a short form lease for the business.

Addington Capital was set up in 2010 by Martin Roberts and Matthew Allen as an independent asset management business and has an established platform in the office, retail and residential sectors. It acts as operating partner in a number of joint ventures to create value through active asset management.

David joins a team of 17 now at Addington. The business recruited Mike McGovern as new head of Development in March from Eastern and Oriental.

Commenting, Martin Roberts, Principal of Addington Capital said, “We are delighted to have attracted a professional of David’s calibre to our team. His knowledge of private equity vehicles as well as his market experience will be invaluable to us. Addington continues to find opportunities to enhance property values across our main sectors of office, retail and residential and we believe that opportunities will only increase in this period of changing markets. “

Posted in News on 01 Aug, 2019

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The value destruction going on in our towns and city centres presents both the greatest challenge and the biggest opportunity in my 30 years in the property industry. Our industry is familiar with economic cycles but not used to big structural changes in the occupational markets.

The way the commercial industry has organised itself as sector specialists operating in silos makes it harder to solve today’s challenges. This structure is along skill lines and profit lines, with interaction between skills and profit centres often relatively minimal.

Housebuilders, meanwhile, are a different animal altogether; a career in housebuilding is as different to working in commercial markets as lawyers are to accountants.

We are facing a challenge that will keep us all busy for a generation: fixing our towns and city centres. But to invest in and advise on town centre regeneration, investors, funders and advisers need to be sector agnostic. The approach and methodology used to analyse the potential of a site or empty building needs to be without a bias towards one use or another and a breadth of know-how is needed to assess the costs and risks of each.

The knowledge gap is never wider than between the commercial and residential approach. The latter is fundamentally different because it is consumer facing, while the commercial industry is business facing. Housebuilders sell to the public, with all the nuances that come with that market.

At Addington, we have acquired/leased/refurbished/built nearly 2,500 homes in the past seven years in 15 UK cities and towns, and consumers in each submarket behave differently and demand different things.

The commercial side of property is fast tooling up to embrace BTR and PRS – but that is a tiny, albeit growing, part of the residential universe. Is it a PDR opportunity or a new-build? Is it C3, C4, student housing or retirement/care or social housing? Is it for rent, to buy or in fact a hotel? It is hard to find the breadth of advice to properly answer these questions while the industry is working and training its professionals in sector silos.

Most stakeholders in our towns and cities – the fund managers and councils – need expert advice to mitigate value destruction in retail centres and ensure a transition to the best sustainable uses. Most of the professionals on the principal side come from a commercial property background and find it difficult to see the wider picture.

We will also need capital providers with the skills but also a rare combination of appetite for risk and the necessary patience these projects are likely to demand. These opportunities are going to need capital more driven by equity multiples than IRRs. Private equity funds provide the bulk of risk capital in our markets but their impatience could be a barrier to entry.

Of course, property advisers and some forward-thinking investors are trying to adjust to today’s market by creating mixed-use teams on to which they co-opt experts from the different silos. While this an imperfect solution, at least it’s a step in the right direction.

But there is still some way to go. The dislocation of the retail sector and value destruction we are only just starting to witness will offer immense opportunities for businesses that are able to adapt. The solutions will inevitably be complex to evaluate and difficult to fund and execute, and the capital will need partners and advisers that are agnostic to use and fit for purpose.

Matthew Allen is principal and co-founder of Addington Capital

Please note this article appeared in Property Week on July 26th 2019

Posted in News on 29 Jul, 2019

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