Town Centre Securities has posted a 2.6% like-for-like increase in passing rent in the year ending 30 June, but warned that it saw “no short-term cessation” to ongoing disruption in retail.
The property investor and car park operator said that its overall occupancy level during the period also inched up to 96%, from 95% in the previous year.
The company said it will continue to reduce its exposure to retail and reinvest to reposition its portfolio, “even if this impacts income in the short term”.
In the past year eight of its tenants went into administration or launched a company voluntary arrangement.
Of those eight units, three have been relet to new tenants and a further three have seen the incumbent retailer choose to remain at the same rent, leaving two units now void and in the process of being relet. The two units represent 0.5% of the total rent roll.
TCS said across those properties, once relet or where occupancy has continued, there was a 1% increase in base rent.
Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive, said: “We have been able to mitigate the continued disruption within the retail sector through our proven ability to quickly relet units affected by CVAs and administrations while improving rents.
“This highlights the quality of our assets and the fact that stronger-performing retailers trade well within them.
“We are not complacent however, and our sale this year of Rochdale Retail Park reinforces our willingness to continue to focus on recycling our portfolio, this freeing up funds for investment and development.”
It sold Rochdale Retail Park for £13.2m in January.
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