Dublin property company selling shop on London’s Oxford Street for €50m

The exodus of Irish investors from the London property market continues apace, with news first reported yesterday by UK commercial property portal CoStar.co.uk that Dublin developer Korine Property Partners is putting its shop at 527-533 Oxford Street on the market through property powerhouse CBRE with an asking price of GBP 39m (€49m).

527-533 Oxford Street in London’s West End (Marble Arch end) is reported by CoStar to be a 13,257 sq ft shop leased to two retailers – Evans and ASICS. The asking price reflects a 4% initial yield.

It is unclear who precisely the Korine partners are but Korine Limited is a Dublin-based company whose directors are John Sisk (37), Liam Nagle (50), Briton Stewart Jackson (65), Ciaran McDonnell (45), Bill Nowlan (66) of WK Nowlan fame and George Sisk are directors. It is 100% owned by Capwell Investments Limited which ultimately seems to be owned by members of the Sisk family. Sisk has been involved in the development of GreystonesHarbour and it was recently reported that NAMA had agreed to a €50m debt-writedown on that project.

Property powerhouse CB Richard Ellis claimed that Irish investors were again heavy sellers of London property in the first six months of 2012. Irish investors sold GBP 545m (€700m) in London in the first six months of 2012, compared with GBP 1bn for the same period in 2011. Since June 2012, David Arnold’s D2 has sold 23 Savile Row in London’s West End for €275m and Dublin-based Jaguar Capital sold 10 Queen Street Place in the City of London for €205m. It is unclear if the €500m of Battersea Power Station by administrators acting for NAMA and others is included in the H1 figures.

UPDATE: 16th January, 2012. The property has now been sold for GBP 38m (€46m) according to the Irish Times to “a Hong Kong based group”