Prada Spends 250 Million Pounds Buying Miu Miu Building on London’s New Bond Street
LONDON — Prada is the latest luxury group to give a vote of confidence to London’s New Bond Street, purchasing the building that houses the Miu Miu store for 250 million pounds.
Prada has purchased the building’s freehold, which means that it is now the sole owner of the property. According to multiple real estate sources, the Italian company bought the building from the asset manager M&G Investments.
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The Miu Miu store, which spans 4,000 square feet, has occupied the building on the corner of New Bond Street and Bruton Street since 2010. The store, whose neighbors include Balenciaga, Hermès, Burberry and Roberto Cavalli, is currently behind hoardings and undergoing refurbishment.
Guests at the 2010 opening party included Germano Celant, Tanya and William Ling, Chloe Moretz, and Marigay McKee. Tanya Ling said there was no way she would ever miss the party. “Miu Miu is Narnia,” she said. “You walk into that wardrobe, and the big neverending story unfolds.”
According to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest “Main Streets Across the World” report, New Bond Street is the third most expensive shopping street in the world, after Via Montenapoleone in Milan and Upper Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Rents on the London street are around $1,762 a square foot annually, 13 percent higher than in 2023.
Prada is the latest major group to make a big-ticket investment on the street. As reported, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering, Swatch, Richemont and Chanel have all been buying properties on the street, both as a real estate investment and as a way of securing space for their brands.
“It’s an exceptional position on the street,” said Anthony Selwyn, head of the central London retail team at Savills, referring to Prada’s new building.
He said that big brands and groups often act like property investors, snapping up freehold properties (rather than leaseholds) when they become available.
“The trend for brands investing in properties has been around forever,” said Selwyn, adding that it’s always a good sign for the market when an occupier becomes an owner.
“They know much more than a typical investor would,” he said, adding that the big brands can measure footfall, sales and traffic on the street 365 days a year.
As reported in 2020, Chanel made a punchy offer of 310 million pounds to purchase the site of its flagship at 159 New Bond Street from SEB, the Swedish pension fund that previously owned the property.
This isn’t the first time that Prada has made a move on Bond Street. A decade ago, Prada purchased two buildings on Old Bond Street, the end of the street that’s closer to Piccadilly, that now house Prada’s flagship in London.
There should be more real estate deals to come. Earlier this week, Prada’s chief financial officer Andrea Bonini said the group expects retail and industrial capital expenditure to increase to around 550 million euros in 2025.
“We want to mindfully shift more focus to new space, after years of the stability or slight decline in retail square footage,” he said.
It’s been a big week for Miu Miu. As reported, the brand has surpassed the 1-billion-euro mark, and continues to fuel growth at parent company Prada Group.
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