LondonMetric Property said it bought two warehouses in London and near Birmingham for a total of £13.2m in an active market for logistics centres spurred by the Covid-19 crisis.
The FTSE 250 company spent £7.7m on a 20,000 sq ft warehouse in Alperton near Wembley. It is let at a rent of £0.35m a year to Ford as a service and parts centre.
The second site cost £5.5m and is in Redditch, about 15 miles south of Birmingham. The newly developed 46,000 sq ft warehouse is let to Heartbeat Manufacturing for £0.3m a year. Both facilities are let for 15 years.
LondonMetric has fared well during the coronavirus crisis because of its concentration on warehouses with long-term leases to businesses such as food retailers and DIY that are less exposed to changes in consumer habits. Warehouses are in demand as the crisis shifts business online, requiring more storage facilities.
Andrew Jones, LondonMetric’s chief executive, said: “These are high-quality urban logistics acquisitions let on long leases with guaranteed rental growth. They are well located, in good geographies where the underlying value of the land significantly underwrites the purchase price.”
