Lord Alan Sugar, the star of the apprentice has now sold his West end office block, situated in Oxford Circus which has been reported to have made approximately £50million profit. The property which is owned by Lord Sugar’s property company, Amsprop Estates has been offered almost £80 million from a Hong Kong investor. 

The building, which is located on 2 Harewood Place, west of Oxford Circus provides 18,000 sq ft of office space was initially bought by Amsprop Estates for £31 million in February 2008. Since then, the building has had a complete major refurbishment, which was completed by Linda Morey Smith.  

As mentioned by Christina Weguelin from Morgan Pryce, “this transaction is an ideal illustration of the rising value of office space in London’s West End, as well another indicator of how foreign investment money, especially from Asia is assisting in pushing up the commercial prices in the West End.” 

It has been suggested that Amsprop Estates were not thinking of selling their ‘trophy’ West End office but were not going to turn down the possibility of making such a huge profit. The Hong Kong buyer, who is a property investor, is quickly building up its asset portfolio within the Capital. The investor has already invested heavily in retail units in Hong Kong, and the last retail unit bought in London was for bought for £38 million in 2010. For foreign investors, their belief is that it is worth paying a high price in London for the capital growth to be returned. 

We can expect competitive bidding to continue in the West End as the supply dwindles.  Figures that have been put out, show that there is £22.5 billion worth of cash chasing just £2.6 billion of property available in the market in both the West End and the City. 

Morgan Pryce is a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.