Member Article

Leeds' Oakapple Group completes sale of £20m Clapham property development

Leeds-based Oakapple Group has completed the sale of its mixed use scheme in Clapham, which has a development value of £20m.

Having previously sold the 40 luxury apartments off plan, an institutional investor has now purchased the 10,000 square foot grade A office complex, which has been pre-let to global lift and escalator company, Kone plc.

The deals have been delivered by Oakapple’s development director Sean Mayes, and construction is now well underway on site under the direction of development manager Jason Papprill, with completion expected early 2016.

Chairman of Oakapple Group, Philip Taylor is delighted with the deal and believes it could rank as one of the best by a Yorkshire company this year.

“We launched the scheme onto the property market in London at a great time,” he said. “The two and three bedroom apartments were quickly snapped up off-plan even before we had started the demolition work on site.

“Although we already had an excellent tenant for the offices, we received so much interest from potential investors that it would have been foolhardy not to have carefully considered the sale of the offices. In the end we were made an offer that was too good to turn down.

“Having re-financed the site with Julian Hodge Bank in Cardiff, when the property market was on its knees, it has turned out extremely well for both Oakapple and the bank, given that the development is now 100% pre-sold. All we have to do now is finish building it with our construction partner Marbank Construction.”

In addition to the Clapham scheme, Oakapple is also creating a significant development pipeline for both residential and commercial properties.

The largest is the creation of 100,000 square feet of grade A office space on Sweet Street in Leeds city centre.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .