Rainton House up for sale

A headquarters office building currently occupied by Just Eat, the 218,000 sq ft business park property is available with an asking price of £11.5m.

As of 2021, the property at Rainton Bridge business park, between Sunderland and Durham, has been fully let to online takeaway portal Just Eat, on assignment from NPower, with the lease expiring in August 2025.

Rainton House was originally built as a pre-let for a bank, and comprises four interconnected buildings, over four floors each, with capacity for further sub-division.

The four sub-buildings, or ‘villages’ as they were conceived, are roughly of similar size, offering between 47,000 sq ft and 61,500 sq ft each. The 218,130 sq ft building is rated BREEAM Very Good.

A sale at £11.5m would reflect a net initial yield of 23.22%.

In the marketing particulars distributed by selling agent Knight Frank, Rainton House is described as a “modern headquarters office building with significant repurposing potential, on a highly popular and successful business campus”.

The building is set on a 12.24-acre plot, with 864 parking spaces, a ratio of 1:253 per sq ft.

The passing rent of £2.85m a year equates to more than £3.4m until lease expiry. The rent of slightly more than £13 per sq ft compares to the average of £16 per sq ft for regional prime out of town space.

Rainton Bridge space is letting well at present, with 91% occupancy according to Knight Frank.

Just Eat moved in in 2021 and has spent £11m on fit-out, indicating a desire to remain in at least some of the space. Npower had occupied Rainton House from 2010.

As to the current appeal of space in the area, the particulars point to the Rainton Bridge letting to Banks Renewables at £13.50 per sq ft in Q1 2024.

Knight Frank capital markets partner Craig Barton posted on Linkedin: “Rainton House is a high spec, incredibly flexible HQ building on an enormous site, offering loads of optionality including an occupier who would like to remain in part.”