Brooks MacDonald buys XQ7 ground rents

HALE-based Brooks Macdonald Funds has said its Ground Rents Fund has purchased the ground rent portfolio of the XQ7 residential block at Exchange Quay, Salford Quays.

The firm has bought the portfolio from the administrators of the block’s developer, Lowry Homes. It was placed into administration in November 2010, with KPMG appointed as joint administrators.

XQ7 is a 13-storey block close to the Exchange Quay tram stop on the fringe of Ordsall. The development contains 271 one- and two-bedroom apartments and a number of duplex properties.

The purchase is Brooks Macdonald Funds’ third grounds rents acquisition package of the year, and has been acquired at a gross yield of 5.6%.

Brooks Macdonald Funds development director, James Agar, said: “This acquisition takes the Fund’s ground rents portfolio towards the directors’ target for 2012 of £20m, as interest in the fund from discretionary fund managers and institutional investors continues to be significant.

“The fund is completely ungeared with no bank debt of any kind, providing liquidity, real returns and paying income twice-yearly. “