THE Swindon Designer Outlet has been sold to new owners in a £600 million deal which includes another shopping centre.

The Times reports that the biggest retail property deal for seven years has seen the site change hands and will now be managed by LaSalle Investment Management, a subsidiary of the property giant JLL, along with the Cheshire Oaks mall.

They fought off stiff competition from Bluewater owner Landsec to seal the deal, which represents a yield of six per cent.

Nuveen Real Estate was advised on the sale by agents from Morgan Williams. The Swindon and Cheshire outlets are managed by McArthurGlen, which is expected to continue in the same role under LaSalle.

The outlet market is expected to keep growing. McArthurGlen opened a new one in the West Midlands last April, and others are now being built in the Cotswolds and Lincolnshire.

The deal is the largest to be made in the sector since 2014, when Landsec paid £696 million for a 30 per cent stake in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

The sites were first developed by McArthur Glen more than two decades ago.

Nuveen took over the Swindon and Cheshire outlets in 2008 for its UK Outlet Mall Fund and has invested a "significant" amount into the centres which have delivered positive returns.

News of the outlet being put up for sale broke in September, when real estate websites published pieces about the process beginning.

McArthur Glen, Nuveen Real Estate, LaSalle Investment Management, and Swindon Borough Council have been approached for comment.