Britain’s biggest healthcare property owner and developer has added a new asset to its 230-site portfolio with the £12.3m purchase of Middlesbrough’s One Life Building.
Originally developed by a group of local general practitioners under the company name of Park Medical Services, the 35,000 sq ft office block and medical complex has been acquired by healthcare giant Assura. Almost £9m of the sale price will go toward paying off the development debt.
Part-National Health Service and part-private health resource, the Linthorpe Road block also contains the full range of medical facilities including a GP practice, a pharmacy, a day case operating theatre, x-ray suites and other outpatient services.
“The One Life Building, with the wide range of medical services it offers, is a prime example of the type of space that is needed to meet the increasing role that primary care is playing within the National Health Service,” commented Assura chief executive, Graham Roberts. “As such, it is in line with our strategy of adding high quality premises and income to our growing portfolio.”
From its 2003 launch the Stock Exchange-listed Assura has specialised in developing and acquiring healthcare property. In 2012 it decided to convert to real estate investment trust status and now controls 233 medical centres across the UK — generating an annual rental income of almost £49m — from its Warrington headquarters.
The Teesside acquisition is part of what many analysts see as a strategy to dominate the healthcare property market.
In September it paid £62.5m for Trinity Medical Properties, which has 32 assets spread across England, Scotland and Wales, with the majority concentrated in the North-East and Yorkshire. These are let to a mixture of GP’s, primary care trust’s and pharmacy tenants. After that deal, Roberts said: “We are delighted to have acquired such a high-quality portfolio.”
Confirming the Trinity deal would increase his company’s rental income by more than 10 per cent, he added: “This acquisition will also allow us to further enhance our control over the sector and illustrates the incremental returns our internally managed model can deliver from growth in our property portfolio.”
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