A £20.5million loan has been complete to aid the acquisition of St George’s Shopping Centre.

The popular shopping centre in Harrow town centre will be bought by Axis Retail Partners, a retail investment advisory and asset management boutique.

Now OakNorth, a UK bank, has provided Axis the loan to acquire the 215,000 sq ft centre which has 32 retail units and 669 parking spaces.

Back in 2015, St George’s was refurbished and features popular household retail brands and attracts an annual footfall of 9million customers.

Toby Smith, the CIO of Axis, said that now is “the right time to start investing” in the UK market as it begins to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “We are focusing on assets which are relevant retail destinations and that have a demonstrated track record of strong performance, a rebased rental level and offer an attractive income yield to our clients.

“Given this was our first shopping centre acquisition, we were in need of not just bank, but a trusted lending partner who we could depend on to understand our business and structure a bespoke facility around our specific needs.”