New £500m Asian-backed vehicle buys first London asset

Montrose Land, the private investment vehicle owned by Native Land founders Alasdair Nicholls and Jonathan Mantovani, has launched a new investment vehicle, RW1, with co-investment from a number of Asian high-net-worth family offices.

The new vehicle plans to invest about £500 million in commercial property in central London and has paid £60 million for its first asset, a 44,500-sq ft newly built office building on George Street in Marylebone, London W1, known as OneThreeSix.

Part of the Portman Estate, OneThreeSix was developed by Native Land and let to fintech company Smart Pension, as its new global headquarters. Smart signed a 15-year lease in July 2021, at a headline rent of £82 per sq ft. The building is one of the first all-electric powered offices in central London and is operationally zero carbon.

RW1’s strategy is to forward purchase assets under construction and to undertake value-add opportunities in central London directly.

RW1 secured debt finance for the acquisition from OCBC Bank.