PRIME buildings in the heart of York's city shopping centre are up for sale at between £3.25 million and £3.5 million.

British Land, which has assets of £17 billion, wants to offload an area between Coppergate and High Ousegate, as part of its policy to sell "small" parcels of land which it regards as relatively costly to manage.

Already the property group reports big interest in the sale, which includes the Anne Summers shop in High Ousegate and Al Fresco in Coppergate.

A buyer would get the benefit of combined rents of £180,000 per annum and the leases are for more than ten years, although Al Fresco is sub-leased from Nobles.

"We have already had a couple of offers, but we are in no hurry. It will stay on the market until we get the price we want," said Chris Betts, assistant manager of British Land, which first acquired an interest in the York properties in 1997 before taking them over completely.

Mr Betts said with retail assets alone of £10 billion, including the 1.3 million sq ft Meadow Hall in Sheffield, British Land decided to sell its relatively small York interest as part of a "clearing out" in a portfolio review. "Our policy is not to have singletons because of relatively very high management costs," he said.

Mr Betts was not surprised at the positive reaction from investors. He said: "York is a very popular retail destination, with an extensive population and a large number of tourists. In this case, the tenants are very strong financially."

Mr Betts expected interest from corporate investors but also from private individuals. "People have got fed up with investing in the stock market and we have had a number of private investors who have made inquiries," he said.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, November 15, 2005