Inland Homes forward sale in Bournemouth goes unconditional

Specialist brownfield land development and housebuilder Inland Homes updated the market on its site at West Cliff Road in Bournemouth - the former Wessex Hotel - on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm had announced last June that it had signed a pre-let with Whitbread brand Premier Inn for a 25-year lease, with a starting rent of £0.59m per annum for the site.

It said the site was currently under construction for 88 apartments and a 105-bed hotel.

Following that, on 27 November it announced that it had signed a conditional forward-sale of the site to Aviva Investors for £13.3m.

Inland Homes confirmed on Tuesday that the conditions to the agreement had now been satisfied and therefore, on completion of the hotel - currently estimated for December 2020 - it would receive £13.266m for the freehold interest.

Inland Homes also advised that it was moving to a purpose-built headquarters of 10,000 square feet at Burnham Yard in Beaconsfield on 29 April, which would be its new registered office.

“We are delighted that the forward-sale agreement with Aviva Investors is now unconditional, at a starting yield of 4.15%,” said Inland Homes chief executive officer Stephen Wicks.

“This will generate an attractive capital sum for Inland on completion of the development which is significantly more than initially anticipated.

“The move to Burnham Yard will enable us to have significantly more space and will provide further room to continue the expansion of our operations in the future,” Wicks added.