The first major office building to be completed by a Southern developer in Belfast's Laganside is being brought on to the market. The 7,500 sq ft building at Mays Meadows, directly opposite the Central Station, is being offered for sale for in excess of £10 million sterling by agents Lambert Smith Hampton in Belfast. The entire building is occupied by Abbey National, which is using it as its Northern Ireland corporate headquarters. The initial rent is £675,625, which sets the rental level at around £11.75 per sq ft. This is the second highest office rental level in the North, just behind the £12 per sq ft achieved for the Dunloe Ewart-developed Design Centre building, in Corporation Street, which was recently fully let to the All State Insurance company, of Illinois.

Although rental levels in Belfast are considerably lower than in Dublin, Lambert Smith Hampton's investment specialist in Belfast, Paddy Brennan, pointed out that after a period of almost no office development up to 1996 there is now significant occupier interest in the market, which is stimulating development and will lead to increasing rental levels.

The Abbey National building is expected to produce a net initial yield of 6.4 per cent. The tenant has an option to terminate or purchase at the end of the 15th and 20th years.

The Mays Meadow site is the most successful yet completed by a Southern developer, several of whom have been quietly involved in apartment and office projects. Belfast has become a prime attraction for Southern investors, who are estimated to have spent £50 million sterling on acquiring existing office buildings, retail outlets and development sites in the past 18 months.