Leisure
The Grey Horse, East Boldon
On Front Street in East Boldon: a popular pub and restaurant with its car park and land, bought in April 2025 with DWF, Savills and Carter Towler. Stonegate Pubs carry on running it on a long agreement.
Commercial property bought across the North East and Yorkshire Bought in 14 days. Decided by a director.
A privately owned and funded property investor in Durham, buying offices, shops, industrial units, pubs and land. A director leads every deal from the very start.
Or call 0191 375 5756
North Road, Durham December 2025
14 days
Legal work and due diligence on a fully let shop with flats above.
Gurpreet Jagpal and Lord Wrigglesworth, the two directors who decide
What are you selling?
Pick a building on the street. Tap a building to see what we buy.
Yes, we buy shops and parades.
North Road, Durham: a parade of four shops with a restaurant and flats above, bought in 2021. Offer us a shop
Yes, we buy offices, empty or let.
Claypath, Durham: a vacant office, completed within 15 working days of agreeing terms (December 2023). Offer us an office
Yes, we buy industrial units.
Frankland Lane, Durham: let to a local taxi company on a long lease, bought off market (December 2023). Offer us a unit
Yes, we buy pubs and leisure property.
The Grey Horse, East Boldon: pub, restaurant, car park and land (April 2025). Stonegate Pubs still run it. Offer us a pub
Yes, we buy land.
Moor Lane, East Boldon: a vacant 1.5-acre estate bought from a PLC within 3 weeks, now Sandpiper View, 18 homes (2021). Offer us land
Yes, student homes too.
In Durham: student accommodation is part of what we own and let, and we joined Durham University’s May 2023 meeting with landlords and letting agents. Offer us a property
- 10 buildings Bought in one deal at City West Business Park, September 2025
- 26,000 sq ft Bede House: bought, refurbished, let to a trade body leaving London, then sold to it
- 15 working days From agreeing terms to completing on a Claypath office, December 2023
- 30+ years Our chairman’s years in commercial and industrial property
Deals handled with DWF Carter Towler Graham S Hall Naylors Gavin Black Savills Lambert Smith Hampton
Deal speed
Four purchases. Every one done inside four weeks.
Each line runs from the start of the legal work, or the day terms were agreed, to completion. Like the lines in our logo, they all meet in the same place.
4 purchases, all completed
Completion
14 days
North Road, Durham Shop with flats, Dec 2025
15 working days
Claypath, Durham Vacant office, Dec 2023
3 weeks or less
Moor Lane, East Boldon 1.5 acres, now 18 homes
4 weeks or less
Galliford Try House Normanton office, 2019
Timings as Durham Group Estates and its advisers published them at the time. Every property is different, and these are the four we have published.
Sale and leaseback
Sell the building. Stay in it.
We buy the freehold, you stay on as our tenant, and the money goes back into the business.
- Release funding for growth. We buy the property your business trades from and lease it back to you.
- Buying a business, not its building? We can be the property partner, buying the premises and leasing them back.
- Growing out of it? We’ve moved occupiers into larger premises and next-door space as they grew.
What could a sale and leaseback release?
£300,000 more in the business by selling, and you pay rent instead of a mortgage.
Illustrative only, before costs and tax. It isn’t an offer or advice: price, rent and lease length are agreed property by property, and you’ll want your own adviser’s view.
Restructuring and insolvency
We’ve sat on your side of the table.
Our chief executive has over 15 years’ experience in business restructuring and turnaround, including retail and property through the financial crisis of 2008 to 2011.
- Insolvency practitioner or adviser? A direct buyer for land and buildings, and an investor in the business if required.
- Downsizing or in decline? Release funds tied up in a freehold commercial property, and stay in it if that helps.
- Empty, part let or in need of work? We buy let and empty property, and refurbishing it is part of what we do.
Every contact is treated in the strictest of confidence.
Talk to a directorDeals
Bought, improved, and sometimes bought by the tenant.
Offices, shops, a pub and land, in Durham, South Tyneside and Leeds. Two of these buildings were later bought by the tenants who rented them from us.
Office, 26,000 sq ft
Bede House, Durham
On Belmont Business Park. Bought off market in 2019, then bought by its tenant, the Federation of Independent Retailers, in 2022.
Retail and flats
North Road, Durham
A parade of four shops with a restaurant and flats above, bought in 2021; number 53 is now Isla, from the team behind Coarse. In December 2025 we bought another let shop, in 14 days.
Land
Moor Lane, East Boldon
A vacant 1.5-acre industrial estate bought from a PLC within 3 weeks. Worked up with Gentoo Homes, who bought our interest and finished Sandpiper View, 18 homes, in 2021.
Office
Pentagon 2, Thorpe Park, Leeds
Bought and refurbished in 2016, then let to a national forensic investigations business with an option to buy. They bought it in October 2019.
Space to let or buy
Your own front door at City West.
Two-storey offices with their own entrances and parking on City West Business Park, Meadowfield, 2.5 miles from Durham City, with new windows, doors and cladding outside.
Units 15 to 16
2,874 sq ft
Two linked buildings with 1,437 sq ft on each floor, mostly open plan upstairs, and a platform lift. EPC B.
£30,000 a year, on a new full repairing and insuring lease
Book a viewingUnit 19, 1,447 sq ft: under offer.
Terms from Graham S Hall, sole agents, November 2026, plus VAT. Estate charge about £1.85 per sq ft a year.
Who decides
Meet the two directors who decide.
One of them leads every deal from the very first call, and the decision is theirs.
Gurpreet Singh Jagpal
Chief Executive
Chartered accountant and Durham University graduate, with over 15 years in restructuring and turnaround. Joined as finance director; chief executive since 2015. Chairs the investment committee at Bernicia.
Lord Wrigglesworth
Executive Chairman
Over thirty years in commercial and industrial property, including Executive Chairman of UK Land Estates from 1995 to 2009 and Chairman of the Port of Tyne until 2012.
Speak to a director on 0191 375 5756 or hello@durhamgroup.co.uk
In Durham
Durham’s good causes, backed every year.
- St Cuthbert’s Hospice Over £20,000 raised at its gala dinner at the Radisson Blu, and public donations doubled, with other local businesses, in its 2023 Power Up appeal.
- Beamish Museum Helped fund an accessible minibus for its health and wellbeing groups in 2024.
- Red Sky Foundation A public defibrillator on the wall of Portland House, our base.
- Durham Fringe Festival Sponsor every year since 2024.
What kind of property do you buy?
Offices, shops and parades, industrial units and warehouses, land, pubs and leisure property, and student accommodation, across the North East of England and Yorkshire. Let, part let or empty.
How quickly can you complete?
Every property is different. Our four published purchases took 14 days, 15 working days, within 3 weeks and within 4 weeks. We are privately owned and funded, so a director makes the decision.
Will you buy a building with tenants in it?
Yes. Our latest North Road purchase was fully let, the Frankland Lane unit came with a tenant on a long lease, and Stonegate Pubs still run the Grey Horse.
How does a sale and leaseback work with you?
We buy the freehold of the property your business uses and lease it back to you, so the money goes into the business. We also act as the property partner for buyers of a business who don’t want to buy its premises.
We’re an insolvency practitioner. Can you move in confidence?
Yes. We regularly work with insolvency practitioners and restructuring advisers, investing in land and buildings, and in the business if required, and we treat every contact in the strictest of confidence.
Who will I deal with?
A director, from the first call. Get in touch and one of our directors will be in touch within 24 hours.
Do you have space to let?
Yes. Units 15 to 16 at City West Business Park in Meadowfield are available to let or to buy through Graham S Hall, and we are always glad to hear from businesses looking for premises in the North East or Yorkshire.
Talk to a director
Put it in front of a director.
A few details now, and one of our directors will be in touch within 24 hours. Everything you send is treated in confidence.
- 0191 375 5756
- hello@durhamgroup.co.uk
- Portland House, Belmont Business Park, Durham DH1 1TW
