The buyer, continuing its global expansion, appointed Lanesbrook as its advisor to support the acquisition.

The Assar Architects-designed office building, arranged over 11 floors with a total office floorspace of 30,164 m2 as well as nine roof terraces totalling a further 3,741 m2, is fully let to professional services firm PwC Belgium and MeetDistrict, the boutique co-working provider.

PwC Belgium has pre-let more than 75% of the BREEAM Excellent-rated building on a 15-year lease. The firm is moving into the building in early 2022.

Located to the North-East of the Brussels-Capital Region in the Airport business district, it is on the train line between Brussels North and Brussels Airport stations, the Brussels ring road and a new tram-bus line due to open in 2023. For this reason, the area is already home to an increasing number of multinational corporates.

Hassan Farran, head of Middle East Capital Markets in Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA Capital Markets Team, said: 'This is an exemplary office building let to a quality tenant in one of Europe’s most strategically important cities, marking it out as extremely attractive to international capital which continues to have a significant appetite for long income assets across Europe.'

Andy Lemmens, from Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Office team in Belgium, said: 'With vacancy rates for grade A office space in Brussels currently close to zero, the quality of this exceptional Ghelamco development represented a unique opportunity to invest into a thriving area and has delivered an excellent outcome.'

Michael Gheysens, MD, Ghelamco Belgium, said: 'Ghelamco is delighted to have successfully completed this transaction. This landmark building, located in a particularly dynamic and multi-modal business environment, meets all contemporary requirements of sustainability and energy efficiency. A future oriented work environment that puts the user first. The new headquarters of PwC is a model of the future.'

The complex provides parking for 760 vehicles and also has access to a cycle network.

Naseer Aka, managing partner at Lanesbrook, commented: 'This is the first acquisition that we have advised on under the Lanesbrook banner. I am pleased to have advised our client on their acquisition of an asset with this build quality, tenant profile and location.'

He added, 'The acquisition validates our belief that quality assets with secure income profiles will continue to attract institutional capital and will offer a hedge against the types of risks encountered in 2020, with the pandemic leading to stress on tenants failing to make timely rental payments. A brand new headquarter building for a global brand is just the type of asset that we typically look to invest in, and this asset ticked all the right boxes for us, our client and our lenders.'