Property overview

Atlas Real Estate and Barber Wadlow have recently completed the off market acquisition of two prime car dealership sale and leasebacks on behalf of Axa’s UK Long Lease Fund.

The properties are located in the established motor trade pitches in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.  The properties comprise two modern facilities operating a multi-franchised facility for Renault/Hyundai/Maserati in Maidstone and Nissan in Tunbridge Wells.  The Maidstone facility extends to 30,654 sq.ft and Tunbridge Wells extends to 14,173 sq.ft.  Both properties have been comprehensively refurbished in the last 12 months.

The properties are both let to Driveline Ltd, guaranteed by Motorline Holdings Ltd, by sale and leaseback for terms of 25 years from October 2016.  Both leases are held on full repairing and insuring terms subject to 5 yearly upward only reviews to RPI collared and capped at 2% and 4% respectively at the first review and 1.5% and 4% respectively for all subsequent reviews.  The current rents are £450,000 per annum for Maidstone and £230,000 per annum for Tunbridge Wells.

Maidstone is held on a 125 year long leasehold from Maidstone Borough Council at a current ground rent of £5,000 per annum with the next review in June 2021.  Tunbridge Wells is held freehold.

The properties were acquired for a combined price of £11,750,000 which reflected a net initial yield of 5.42%.

The vendor, Motorline Holdings Ltd, was represented by the Nigel Lawrence Partnership.