International investors are shrugging off Brexit fears and targeting Bristol’s city centre office market – including apparently a multi-millionaire Russian mother who bought a £56m office block for her son.
The private individual is understood to have snapped up 78,000 sq ft Bridgewater House, part of the Finzels Reach development and home to EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C development team as well as Barclays and accountants BDO.
Her largesse is the latest in a series of investment deals in the city – mainly funded by overseas funds and wealthy individuals keen to buy into the ‘safe haven’ of the UK’s regional commercial property market as London overheats.
European, Middle Eastern and US buyers have already made acquisitions in Bristol over recent years – and according to the city’s property experts there does not appear to be any shortage of new buyers
The strength of the commercial property market – including out-of-town sites and industrial schemes – was highlighted this week by property consultancy JLL at its annual briefing.
The international aspect of the market was latched onto by the firm’s regional chairman Jeremy Richards, who shared with guests the irony of a Russian buying a grade A Bristol office occupied by a French company building a UK nuclear power station funded by the Chinese.
Take up in the Bristol city centre market last year totaled 783,000 sq ft – almost a third above the five-year average.
A full report on JLL’s property review will appear in Bristol Business News next week.
Pictured: Bridgewater House, Bristol 
