LONDON (Reuters) – London’s police sold their New Scotland Yard headquarters for 370 million pounds ($578.90 million) on Tuesday to an Abu Dhabi investment firm, the latest part of the British capital to be snapped up by foreign investors.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said in September that it would put its New Scotland Yard headquarters, famed for its revolving triangular sign, on the market, listing the site with a guide price of 250 million pounds.
The move is part of wider cost-saving measures at Britain’s largest police force, which is relocating to a smaller site.
Abu Dhabi Financial Group paid 120 million pounds above the listed price; the central London location is to be turned into a development including luxury apartments in what the firm said it hoped would become a new London landmark.
“The New Scotland Yard site will be one of the most important redevelopment projects undertaken in Central London this decade, replacing a world famous headquarters with a world class development,” said group CEO Jassim Alseddiqi.
Foreign investors have poured money into London as a safe haven while other markets like the euro zone have suffered. But they have been criticised for inflating London property costs — house prices have jumped by some 20 percent over the past year.
The 600,000-square-foot (56,000-square-metre) site has been home to the Metropolitan Police Service since 1967 and becomes the latest prime bit of London real estate to spark the interest of foreign investors.
Read more at Reuters
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