SACO acquires London property as part of £100m investment programme

SACO, the Serviced Apartment Company, has acquired a property on Buckle Street in London as part of a £100m investment programme over the next year.

The 13,000 sq ft, five-storey property, acquired from Galliard Homes and Redington Developments, will become one of the firm's new lifestyle aparthotels.

SACO plans to convert the office building into a 78-unit aparthotel, which is expected to open in the second half of 2018.

It will form an extension to SACO's 168-unit aparthotel on Leman Street, which is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The Buckle Street property is one of five new SACO aparthotels currently scheduled to open in the next three years. The first on London's Cannon Street will open in phases from later this month.

It will be followed by the first lifestyle aparthotel on London's Leman Street and two lifestyle aparthotels in Edinburgh in 2017.

The development of these properties will be managed by the SACO Development Group, which was formed following the appointment of a team of specialist managers who joined SACO from Union Hanover, the founders of Urban Villa.

Eric Jafari, managing director of development at SACO, who leads the SACO Development Group, said: "This acquisition will enable us to grow our lifestyle aparthotel presence in the city, and heralds the start of a £100m acquisition programme planned for 2016."

"Serviced apartments are the fastest growing element of the hospitality sector, and our investment in new property will enable us to remain at the forefront of the evolution in this rapidly changing sector."

Founded in 1997 in Bristol, SACO currently operates more than 800 apartments in the UK, as well as 220 destinations across 52 countries.

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