Investor adds Edinburgh’s Morningside Waitrose to shopping basket in £18.15m deal
A prime Edinburgh retail property housing a Waitrose supermarket and Kwik Fit garage has been sold for over £18.15 million.
Located at 145 Morningside Road and 7-13 Falcon Road, the property comprises a 33,347 sq ft retail space for Waitrose and an adjoining 12,795 sq ft garage for Kwik Fit. Both businesses are said to be trading strongly.
Knight Frank acted for the purchaser, a client of DTZ Investors, and the property was sold by a client of LaSalle, represented by Savills.
Last month, Knight Frank said that investment in Scottish commercial property firmed up in the third quarter, reaching £1.21 billion for the year to date, as political stability following the election and a first cut to interest rates created a more stable backdrop. Retail was the most active sector, with £446m of deals.
Euan Kelly, capital markets partner at Knight Frank Edinburgh, said: “Both Waitrose and Kwik-Fit trade exceptionally well from their Morningside locations, with little in the way of nearby competition and an affluent local population.
“Broadly speaking, supermarkets are performing well, supported by solid fundamentals and long-term average growth of 4.1% in grocery sales, and we’re seeing strong demand from investors for these types of assets.
“More generally, the Scottish commercial property investment market has solidified in the last few months. While there is less stock available than we perhaps expected going into the tail end of the year, it is shaping up to be a busy first half to 2025, assuming the macro-environment remains stable and interest rates continue on their current trajectory.”
Ewan Stewart, acquisitions manager at DTZ Investors, said: “We are delighted to complete on this acquisition. The fundamentals of the long leases to tenants with strong trading performance in an affluent neighbourhood in central Edinburgh are exactly where we are looking to invest. We look forward to doing further acquisitions with similar fundamentals.”