Just a year after it celebrated its 175th birthday the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool is on the market with a price tag of a little under £50m. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock is the latest Liverpool landmark to go on the market and is being offered with a price tag of £49.25m.

In March it was announced the Royal Liver Building was on the market for £90m. In contrast the price tag on the Royal Albert Dock, one of the most popular free tourist attractions in the UK, makes it seem almost a bargain.

CBRE Investment Management has appointed London-based agency Joiner Cummings to find a buyer for the 375,295 sq ft mixed-use development. It originally opened in 1876 and shortly before its 175th anniversary was given the title ‘Royal’ by the Queen.

It is made up of four Grade I-listed buildings – Britannia Pavilion, The Colonnades, Atlantic Pavilion and Edward Pavilion. By the early 1980s it had collapsed into dereliction. It was brought back to life by the Merseyside Development Corporation.

However, the dock was cut off from the city centre and ultimately floundered as a retail destination. It wasn’t until the opening of the ACC Liverpool events and conference venue and the £1bn Liverpool ONE scheme in 2008 that the venue realised its true potential. It was reborn as a leisure destination offering bars, restaurants and museums.

Royal Albert Dock now has 56 tenants. They generate an annual rental income of £3.6m. For the buyer this would represent a net initial yield of around 7%. Net initial yield is the rental income expressed as a percentage of the capital value.

Around 30% of this revenue comes from two hotels – the Premier Inn and Holiday Inn. As well as multiple food and drink operators the dock is also home to the Tate gallery, Merseyside Maritime Museum and The Beatles Story. It also offers office space. Pre-pandemic visitor numbers annually exceeded 6m.