Listed property investor Regional REIT has shrunk its portfolio by £25m in asset sales over the course of the last year, making no new acquisitions. The company announced full year results to the stock market to December 31, 2023, showing rent roll decreased to £67.8m from £71.8m. Realised losses on the disposal of investment properties amounted to £0.7 million. The change in the fair value of investment properties amounted to a loss of £73.3 million. Since December 31, 2023, the Company has completed a further eight disposals and two part sales for an aggregate total of £13.4m [5ec99e75].
Stephen Inglis, CEO of London and Scottish Property Investment Management, the Asset Manager, commented: “2023 was another active period for the Company, in which we completed 88 new lettings, 7.1% above the Company’s external valuer’s estimated rental value (ERV) as at the 2023 year end. In addition, as part of the Company’s asset disposal programme to reduce the LTV, disposals during the year amounted to £25m (net of costs).”
The company's second biggest new letting of the year was at the Foundation Chester Business Park, where GB Group renewed its lease to July 2028, with a break option in July 2026, at a rental income of £289,500 pa (£18.21/ sq. ft.) on 15,902 sq. ft. of space [5ec99e75].
Real Estate Investors (REI), the UK's only Midlands-focused real estate investment trust, has paid and declared £50.6 million in dividends to shareholders since 2012. In 2023, REI completed sales totaling £17.97 million and continued its debt repayment program, reducing total drawn down debt to £51.7 million. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £9.4 million due to market sentiment, yield shifts, and portfolio valuation decline. REI aims to continue disposing of assets and maximizing returns to shareholders within the next three years. Rent collection levels for 2023 were robust at 99.82%, and revenue for the year was £11.5 million. REI plans to conduct a three-year strategic sale of portfolio assets to pay down debt and return cash to shareholders. The company remains open to individual asset sales or a corporate transaction that is in the best interest of shareholders [75045bb9].
Arrived Single Family Rental Fund, a non-traded REIT backed by Jeff Bezos, has added five new rental homes to its portfolio. The company launched the Single Family Rental Fund in Q4 2023, allowing investors to diversify their real estate portfolio across multiple properties. The fund operates as a non-traded REIT, providing transparency into each property in the portfolio. The REIT pays dividends monthly, with an average annualized dividend yield of 4.2%. The new properties added to the portfolio are located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Huntsville, Alabama. Arrived is backed by notable investors including Jeff Bezos, Dara Khosrowshahi, Spencer Rascoff, and Marc Benioff [e196db34].
According to an analysis by Steve Booyens, CFA, published on InvestorPlace, there are several REITs at risk of underperforming due to supply and demand imbalances in the U.S. commercial real estate market, higher counterparty risk, and a weaker supply and demand outlook. The three REITs mentioned in the analysis as ones to sell are Orion Office REIT (ONL), which has below-par occupancy and high refinancing risk, Farmland Partners (FPI), which has a decreasing book value and overvaluation, and Medical Properties Trust (MPW), which has solvency issues and a fragile balance sheet [2745a5cd].