What's driving the remarkable deals rush from Abu Dhabi owned house builder London Square?

It is less than 18 months since residential developer London Square was snapped up by Abu Dhabi’s biggest property company Aldar in a £230 million deal in December 2023.

But the new owners have not been slow in making a major impact on the capital’s property scene despite the takeover being their first foray outside its traditional comfort zone of the Middle East.

No slow and steady build-up for Aldar, instead it has fast become one of the most active players in the entire market.

Under its new ownership London Square has already swooped on 15 major development sites - at a dizzying rate of almost one a month - across ten boroughs.

Together they represent 3million sq ft of real estate with 10 sites already under construction. It is a big, bold statement.

The most recent eye-catching move came today with the purchase of Wimbledon Bridge House, the third major site purchase this year alone ear marked for residential development.

The Wimbledon town centre building is currently mainly made up of offices, with shops at street levels and a multi-storey car park.

London Square says it will now start talks with Merton council “with a view to making a significant contribution to enhancing the town centre for local residents, businesses and visitors. “

It follows hard on the heels of last month’s acquisition of the derelict Leegate shopping centre in Lewisham where the developer plans to build 562 homes, of which 173 are designated affordable, and create 4,538sq m of commercial space.

Before that London Square pounced on Ransome’s Wharf, a 1.6 acre site close to the Thames between Albert Bridge and Battersea Bridge and opposite Chelsea Embankment.

The former warehouse and office site was bought from Singapore’s City Developments for £69 million with planning already in place for five blocks of four to nine storeys in landscaped gardens.

When built out the development will have 118 homes, including 24 designated affordable homes, as well as more than 19,000 sq ft of commercial space. Construction will start in the Autumn.

It was a typically punchy move from a company that has not let the dust gather under its corporate feet under the leadership of Aldar Development’s CEO Jonathan Emery, a former UK managing director at Hammerson, and London Square founder and boss Adam Lawrence.

Other high profile purchases include Westminster Tower overlooking Lambeth Palace on the Albert Embankment for £40.8 million in April last year; the Grade II* listed former Surrey County Hall in Kingston-Upon-Thames in October last year, and the former St Wilfrid’s Convent at 29 Tite Street, close to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, bought in March.

London Square has also made big strides in the built to rent market through its London Square Living division with acquisitions such as the 350 home Stratford Square site picked up from Lendlease in July.

In total London Square’s pipeline has more than doubled in value to nearly £4 billion with more than 7,000 homes due to be delivered within five years, of which 38% are designated affordable.

If Aldar has remained largely in the background preferring the London Square brand do the talking, there is no doubting the Abu Dhabi developer’s hands on involvement.

Aldar revealed in the last set of London Square accounts covering the nine months to the end of 2023 that it has provided £205 million of funding to refinance debt facilities, and also taken out a £250 million loan facility First Abu Dhabi Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Mashreqbank, which has been fully drawn.

The financial backing has enabled a pace of expansion in sharp contrast to the year before the acquisition when just one site acquisition was completed on.

Latest figures from Aldar show London Square’s sales reaching £377.4 million last year - including a record £233.1 million in the fourth quarter with an annual revenue contribution of £213 million to the parent company in 2024

Aldar Properties’s urbane CEO Talal Al Dhiyebi said the idea for such a big push into London dates back to the Covid era lockdowns when the company decided to diversify its income streams rather than being wholly reliant on its home market in the Gulf.

Just in case another seismic event on the scale of the pandemic ever came along again.

The first overseas move was into Egypt where Aldar bought a development company called Sodic, which Al Dhiyebi describes as a “very like like minded company.”

Next the company turned it eye on London where it spotted a huge opportunity because of the well publicised and ever widening gap between housing supply and demand that has left London with such a chronic housing shortage, particularly for its young people.

As Al Dhiyebi describes it: “So what we really thought again, similar to our strategy of going into Egypt was let’s look for a platform that we can take and scale up.

“We found London Square, a story of very similar values to ours again, and we found an exceptional management team, that we felt had a lot of potential.

“But we didn’t think they were maximizing the true value of their potential for whatever reasons. We felt that we could come in and add towards that story of accelerating their growth”.

And that growth has been spectacular, although Al Dhiyebi is insistent that it has also been disciplined, despite the breakneck pace.

He said: “We have very strict investment policies in terms of we’re not just going out there and buying any plot of land that’s available. We’re buying land that fits in, we’re trying to build up a carefully curated portfolio of projects after understanding what customers want.”

As well as the luxury developments for which London Square is best known, the company is also developing affordable housing under its Square Roots brand and is also partnering with investors such as insurance companies to establish a build to rent operation.

Al Dhiyebi, an avowed Londonphile who visits the capital regularly, admits that “London has had its fair share of challenges when it comes to policies regarding the housing market. And I say that based on the output.

“ It’s very easy to look at things in hindsight but the fact of the matter is that the housing shortage that London has had for many years is only getting wider.

“So that shows that either some policies are not right or there’s not enough incentives or attractiveness for more players to come in or the existing players, to continue to deploy.

“We are very optimistic that we’re going to see more policy changes that make it even more conducive for investment, whether those are players from within the UK or that’s bringing in more FDI into the UK, which not only helps the UK real estate market, but is also good for the UK economy.

“And what’s good for the UK economy will end up also becoming good for the real estate market, so we we have to take a view on what’s what the macro looks like. But we do think that there are strong fundamentals in the UK.”

“Right now, it’s about activating those sites, getting them through whatever planning approvals we need, getting them through procurement, and getting on site, and delivering...and as we continue to deliver, we then need to replenish.”

And despite the well publicised stories about an exodos of affluent people from the UK - many indeed to the UAE - because of what they perceive as an anti-wealth creation culture - Al Dhiyebi believes London’s attraction remain as strong as ever.

“London is an incredible city,” he insists. “We are believers that the demand will continue to exist. We’ve seen that with some of our our more recent launches. The buyers are more sophisticated. 


“They are looking for more, they’re looking for amenities, they’re looking for safety and security, they’re looking for quality.

“I would say, it’s more than an investment. From an investment perspective, what some of our buyers are telling us is there may be other more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, whether that is from a capital appreciation perspective or whether that’s from a yield perspective.

“But demand for London remains very strong, and that is because of the lifestyle, the culture, even the weather- some people love it, some people don’t. It depends where you’re coming from, how much you like the sun or the clouds. But whatever you get in London it is quite unique.

“I love walking in London. I love the streets. 
I love the vibe. I love the theatres, all the museums, like the national history museum. Also one of the most beautiful things about London is similar to what you have here, it’s a melting pot for meeting people together. “

Al Dhiyebi maintains that Aldar are going to stick around: “Our strategies in real estate are much more for the longer term. A real estate project takes two and a half to three years, when you’re building a pipeline you’re looking at four or five years.

“So are we going to be out of London Square in five years time? No. Does that we will be investors in London Square or divested in 15 or 20 years? Nobody knows.”