Long Harbour Pushes £1.2B Living Plan Ahead: The London Deal Sheet

The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com. 

Long Harbour has completed two single-family rental forward-funding deals as part of a £1.2B investment in the sector.

It is to forward-fund 193 single-family homes in Mowbray Village, Horsham, and 65 homes in Great Dunmow, Uttlesford, to be developed by UK housebuilder Dandara.

The homes in Mowbray Village are on a large parcel of land acquired by Dandara within the wider Mowbray Village masterplan, a mixed-use development on the northern edge of Horsham. Once complete, Mowbray Village will comprise 2,750 new homes, 500K SF of employment space, a supermarket and a sports campus.

Separately, Long Harbour has also agreed to forward-fund the delivery of 111 single-family homes in Ditton, Kent, acquiring the homes at Orchard Mill from Miller Homes for a range of one-, two-, three- and four-bed units. 

The acquisitions were made on behalf of Long Harbour’s latest Single Family Housing Fund, which is currently deploying up to £600M into housing assets. The vehicle has a total target raise of £1.2B and is acquiring new-build family homes across the UK, with a focus on the south and southeast of England. Korea's National Pension Service is the cornerstone investor in the fund. 

Long Harbour was advised on the transactions by CMS and Knight Frank, and Dandara was advised on Horsham by Newmark and CRS and at Great Dunmow by Savills and CRS.

FINANCE

LondonMetric Property has priced a £500M sterling-denominated senior unsecured green bond issuance under its £3B Euro medium term note programme.

The bonds have a weighted average coupon of 4.69% and a weighted average maturity of 5.5 years across two tranches: £250M with a four-year maturity and a 4.50% coupon; and £250M with a seven-year maturity and a 4.875% coupon, reflecting a spread of 92bps over the relevant benchmark.

The issuance was more than three times oversubscribed, the company said, and the bonds are expected to be issued on 10 December.

“We are delighted with the very strong support for our debut bond issuance which builds on our recent credit rating and reflects our significantly increased scale and high quality income focused portfolio,” LondonMetric Finance Director Martin McGann said in a statement.

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Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva, has completed a £175M loan to The Arora Group, a three-year facility provided by several funds managed by Aviva Investors.

It will be used to finance Arora’s acquisition of 102 Petty France in St James’s, central London, which overlooks St James's Park and spans 525K SF across 14 storeys. It is currently let to the Ministry of Justice for a further three years until its planned closure in 2028 as part of the UK government’s Plan for London.

Arora plans to convert the property into hotel and residential use at expiry of the lease and will work up planning over the loan term while using surplus rent to support debt amortisation, Aviva said. Arora was advised on the facility by CBRE.

DEALS

Whitbread has completed the freehold hotel acquisition of Victory House at 30-34 Kingsway, WC2 from a private overseas investor for an undisclosed sum.

Whitbread intends to convert the 45K SF office building, which is currently occupied until spring 2026, into a Hub by Premier Inn hotel of around 200 bedrooms, subject to planning.

The location matches Whitbread’s network plan requirement for Covent Garden/Holborn and provides Hub by Premier Inn customers with a location close to Covent Garden, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the LSE campus and London’s theatre district, the company said of the purchase.

The off-market deal concludes an active year for Whitbread in central and inner London. Since February, the company has acquired four former office buildings to convert into Premier Inn and Hub by Premier Inn hotels, with investments totalling more than £100M.

DEVELOPMENT

Henderson Park and developer General Projects have completed the restoration of 242 Marylebone Road, the former Woolworths headquarters in central London. Now known as Metropolis, the project has converted the mid-century landmark into a 175K SF net-zero carbon commercial hub.

Originally commissioned by Woolworths in 1955 and designed by architect Richard Seifert & Partners, the nine-floor building has been refurbished and extended, with a seven-storey stepped extension designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and constructed with cross-laminated timber added to the rear of the original building, increasing its internal floor area by 40%.

Floorplates are up to 25K SF, while the refurbished building has achieved BREEAM Outstanding. Metropolis will be operationally net-zero carbon and will exclusively use 100% REGO-certified renewable energy, aligning with Henderson Park and General Projects’ focus on sustainability.

PLANNING

Dominus has secured Gateway 2 approval from the Building Safety Regulator for its 875-bed, 13-storey purpose-built student accommodation scheme at 65 Fleet Street.

The joint venture project is being delivered in partnership with Cheyne Capital and will, the partners said, regenerate a formerly underutilised office building into a sustainable development.

The scheme is expected to deliver 875 student rooms, 35% of which will be provided at affordable rents capped by the Mayor of London. Cultural space will be created across the ground and lower-ground floors.

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Billingsgate and Smithfield Market traders, the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority have identified a preferred new site in the Royal Docks in Newham, called Albert Island, for both markets to relocate.

The move is subject to the successful passage of the Parliamentary Bill to provide for the cessation of the markets at their current sites, while planning permission from Newham Borough Council also will be needed to enable the markets to operate on site.

The Royal Docks is owned by the GLA and has planning consent for circa 750K SF of development and a new boatyard. It is estimated that the move will bring circa £750M in local expenditure and over 2,200 jobs and boost the Newham economy by £130M.

TECHNOLOGY

Grosvenor has invested in two tech companies, Wint and REalyse, as part of its venture investment programme.

Both investments follow trials through Grosvenor’s Future+ innovation programme, which empowers people across the business to experiment with solutions to strategic priorities.

Wint specialises in water management and leak mitigation, while residential data platform REalyse follows a successful yearlong trial with Grosvenor’s private credit team, which has enabled Grosvenor to leverage data analytics to make better informed decisions and improve strategic planning.

Grosvenor’s venture investment team has to date invested £10M in a range of scale-up businesses and venture capital funds. 

LEASING

Newmark has secured six new retail locations for UK brand Crew Clothing as part of its national growth strategy. Crew Clothing is expanding its footprint in shopping centres and high streets across the UK.

The new openings include Victoria Square in Belfast and Muswell Hill in London, which opened in June 2025 and September 2025, respectively. In addition, Newmark has advised on four sites set to open before or just after Christmas, including The Bentall Centre in Kingston, Churchill Square in Brighton, Meadowhall in Sheffield and The Glades in Bromley.

The brand is targeting 20 additional store openings across the UK in 2026.

PEOPLE

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has appointed Kathleen Verelst as chief investment officer and a member of its management board, effective 1 January 2026.  

Verelst has more than 30 years of global real estate experience working for an international investment bank and law firms across diverse asset classes and markets, URW said. Between 2021 and 2024, she served as a senior adviser to URW’s supervisory and management boards in relation to the group’s deleveraging strategy.

Taking on the role previously held by CEO-elect Vincent Rouget, Verelst will be responsible for implementing the group’s capital allocation framework.

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Vastint UK has appointed Dan Westley to head of Portfolio UK. Westley joins the real estate developer after eight and a half years as commercial leasing director at Battersea Power Station. 

He will lead the company’s nationwide commercial strategy, leasing and asset management across its 1.5M SF commercial portfolio and will take forward its large-scale regenerations of Sugar House Island in east London, Aire Park in Leeds and the Embankment in Cardiff.   

Westley will report to Vastint UK Managing Director Stephen Lindley.