Northampton job centre building sold for £3.6m

Ace Liberty and Stone have put up £3,630,000 million for the Lower Mounts building, whose official name is Frances House.

It is currently let to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which has more than eight years of its lease to run. The Government currently pays more than £244,000 a year to rent the building.

A spokeswoman for Ace, Liberty and Stone said there were no current plans to change the use of the building, but said it was a possibility in the future.

At least one website that had offered the building for sale describes it as having "long-term potential for conversion to residential" subject to planning permission.

Chief executive Ismail Ghandour said the Northampton purchase, along with a similar deal worth £2.5 million in Bolton made sense for the company: "Both have blue-chip, Government tenants with long leases and strong yields.

"Furthermore, they are in attractive locations with strong re-purposing opportunities.

"The current political and economic uncertainty created by Brexit does not affect our business and we're able to find exciting investment opportunities with the potential for healthy investor returns."