The land beneath St Giles Shopping Centre in Elgin is being auctioned off next week, with a guide price of £1.15 million.
Whoever buys the 1.95-acre site on the town’s High Street will enjoy a steady income stream, currently £217,800 a year, until 2139.
It is among properties in an Acuitus auction on Thursday December 15.
The auction is at 1.30pm and will be broadcast via livestream on the Acuitus website, with bidding taking place either online, by telephone or by proxy.
Ground rents are extremely popular with investors looking for long-term income secured on substantial properties.
Mhairi Archibald, Acuitus Scotland.
These kind of property deals are widely seen as a good long-term investment, often with potential asset management opportunities.
The St Giles site is being sold by an undisclosed “major” pension fund.
Aviemore-based entrepreneur David Cameron is among those likely to have more than a passing interest in who acquires the ground rent.
Mr Cameron, a director of Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, owns the shopping centre.
His other business interests include part ownership of Aberdeenshire housebuilder Scotia Homes.
St Giles Shopping Centre is home to retail brands including Waterstones WH Smith, The Works, Subway, Ramsdens and Ashers Bakery, as well as mobile phone stores.
The once bustling mall has been through a tough few years, suffering a string of closures – names such as Trespass, Dorothy Jacks, Monsoon and Superdrug have gone.
Scottish Property agent Graham + Sibbald is currently marketing five units for rent in the shopping centre, with floor space ranging from 267sq ft to 6,594sq ft.
Aberdeen land under the hammer
Meanwhile, London-based property online auction specialist Acuitus is also putting the ground rent interest in two sites in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, under the virtual hammer.
Lot 38 in next week’s auction comprises land totalling just over two acres occupied by two former hotels – a Holiday Inn and a Holiday Inn Express – next to the old Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
The “heritable ground rent investment” is up for grabs, along with “asset management opportunities”, with a guide price tag of £1m.
Acuitus identifies the seller only as a “major pension fund”.
Mhairi Archibald, of Acuitus Scotland, said: “Ground rents are extremely popular with investors looking for long-term income secured on substantial properties.
“The St Giles Centre asset represents a major site in the popular market town and the Aberdeen lot is adjacent to former site of the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre complex, where planning consent for up to 500 homes has been granted.”
The two Aberdeen hotels have lain empty for years. Their demise followed the collapse of businesses that were owned by Aberdeen-based entrepreneurial duo Ivor Finnie and Alan Wallace.
Industrial premises for sale
Another lot in next week’s auction involves industrial premises on Greenwell Place, East Tullos, Aberdeen.
The auction house is offering the two interconnecting workshop buildings, with attached two-storey office accommodation, totalling 26,522sq ft at a guide price of £275,000.
Conversation