LONDON (Reuters) - The Carlyle Group has agreed to buy six London offices linked to the failed White Tower commercial mortgage-backed securitisation 2006-3 (CMBS) for £671 million ($1 billion), in its first major British property buy since 2008.

The private equity house bought the portfolio on behalf of investors in its third European property fund, Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners III, which was launched in June 2008 after raising 2.2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of equity.

"Whilst each property benefits from an existing secure income profile, there are considerable longer-term opportunities across the portfolio for active asset management and redevelopment," Robert Hodges, managing director of Carlyle European Real Estate said.

"We are especially pleased to secure long-term, flexible financing from a syndicate of strong relationship banks led by Societe Generale, for such a large portfolio, especially given current debt market conditions," he said.

The six offices, let to a range of tenants including JPMorgan, UBS and IBM, represent the bulk of the assets supporting the £1.15 billion White Tower 2006-3 CMBS, which defaulted in July 2009 after a sharp correction in UK commercial property prices.

CB Richard Ellis Loan Servicing, special servicers of the bonds, put eight of the nine properties backing the CMBS up for sale in March in an effort to repay as many noteholders as possible.

At the time, CBRELS said it had received advice that the net proceeds of the sale were "likely to allow the full repayment of Class A Notes and at least a significant proportion of Class B Notes".

The steep market downturn, triggered by a collapse in global credit markets, slashed the value of the property portfolio backing the CMBS to £929 million at end-June 2009, almost half their worth when the bonds were first structured and sold.