The Charities Property Fund, managed by Cordea Savills, has acquired a portfolio of car showrooms for £17.4m. The Fund has also passed the £500m milestone and is now fully invested with £510m under management. The showrooms are four state of the art car dealerships trading the premium brands of McLaren, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Volvo, BMW, Mini and Mercedes in the prime centres of Chester, Worcester, Harrogate and Solihull. They are all let on very long leases with annual fixed rental increases and options to extend for a further 20 years. The acquisition price reflects a 7.2 percent yield after the costs of acquisition.
The Fund has grown rapidly, with net assets increasing by more than 160 percent from just over £190m in June 2009 to £510m at the end of March 2013. It continues to deliver a high and secure level of income. The current net yield of 6.0 percent makes it extremely attractive to charities and compares favourably with the 4.5 percent per annum average dividend payable by the funds in the IPD Pooled Property Fund Index, 1.76 percent available on UK 10-year Gilts and 3.66 percent yielded by the FTSE All Share.
