Midlands-focused REIT REI has fallen to a £780,000 loss for the first half of the year, as it continues to push sales.
For the same period last year the £170m REIT earned £8.3m profit before tax, but that was reversed by a £4.1m loss on property revaluations and lower profit on sales. H1 2022 saw a £3.1m valuation gain.
Chief executive Paul Bassi said: “Throughout 2023 investment and sales activity has been at its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, with corporate and institutional investors remaining dormant.”
He added that the nature of the portfolio had allowed REI to “break-up and sell individual units, taking advantage of the ongoing demand for smaller lot sizes from private investors and owner occupiers”.
“We will continue with this approach until we see a normalised market.”
The REIT disposed of £3.6m of assets during the six months, as well as £6.8m after June. Disposals since the start of 2021 have totalled £48.9m with £38.3m of debt repaid.
Bassi said a further pipeline of sales was in legals.
“It is our intention to accelerate our sales programme and we will consider the sale of assets either on an individual or collective basis, on terms that represent value for shareholders,” Bassi added.
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