Iconic 'walkie-talkie' London building sold for record £1.3bn

The iconic “Walkie-Talkie” building in London has been sold in a deal worth £1.3bn, a record sale for a single building within the UK.

The unique building, which was constructed in 2014, has been sold to Lee Kum Kee, a sauces and condiments company in Asia.

At £1.3bn, the sale stands as a record breaking transaction for a single building in the UK.

A UK real estate investment trust that owns 50 per cent of the building, announced that it had exchanged contracts with LKK Health Products Group, a division of the broader Lee Kum Kee Group, which would also buy the remaining 50 per cent stake controlled by Canary Wharf Group.

The move is just another example of Chinese investors buying into the London property market, with Forbes estimating around £2.3bn investment into London office buildings by Chinese investors in the first half of 2017 alone.

The ‘walkie-talkie’

Designed by Rafael Vinoly, the walkie talkie building was intended to maximise floor space towards to the top of the building, where rent prices are typically higher.

Developed by a joint venture partnership between two of the UK’s leading property companies in Canary Wharf Group and Land Securities, 20 Fenchurch Street provides 670,000 sq ft of top quality offices with unrivalled panoramic views of London.

It provides over 670,000 sq ft of world class space in floor plate sizes of 14,700 sq ft to 29,400 sq ft, with a sky garden, bars and restaurants on the top 3 floors.

Completion of the office floors was achieved in April 2014 and the building was already 90% let, with the first tenants in occupation by May 2014.