MORNING NEWS: LondonMetric axes £58m of LXi assets

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the week ahead. Andrew Jones’ LondonMetric has offloaded almost £58m of LXi assets as it continues to exit assets and sectors it believes are “incompatible with the listed REIT sector”. The group sold a total of 24 assets, with 22 coming from the LXi business it acquired earlier this year. Among the properties was a portfolio of 12 assisted living assets, which LondonMetric said marked its exit from the sector. Since the end of March this year, the group said it had sold more than £200m of properties at a blended yield of 7.6%. While LondonMetric offloads, RLAM has bought a 50% stake in the 1.3m sq ft centre:mk shopping centre in Milton Keynes from AusSuper for a rumoured £150m and Supermarket Income REIT has splashed almost £50m buying an omni-channel Sainsbury’s in Yorkshire. Supermarket REIT said the deal was part of its strategy to grow its earnings through acquisitions and came amid a period of “significant strategic and operational development” for the company. Andrew Coombs at Sirius Real Estate is also getting in the buying mood after the German and UK business park investor recorded double-digit increases in revenue and profit. He said the business had “significant sufficient firepower” for acquisitions and had a “number of levers at our disposal that can be pulled to unlock value”. And ICYMI on Friday afternoon, Landsec boss Mark Allan is hoping to unlock value from a growing residential portfolio. The firm is considering a move into operational residential as it secures a pipeline of more than 6,000 homes. The REIT said that with consent in place for 1,800 homes at its redevelopment of the O2 Centre at Finchley Road, NW3, some 1,700 homes at its Mayfield project in Manchester and plans now submitted for 1,700 homes and more than 1,000 student and co-living beds at its redevelopment of Lewisham Shopping Centre, it would start thinking about how it would build out and deliver those homes. Chief executive Mark Allan told EG: “We’ve had to be patient to get to where we are. We’ll make the decision on how we deliver them going forward in the next financial year, but I would like to think that we will have a meaningful operational component and investment in residential in in five years’ time.” Landsec, which reported its interim results on Friday, said its current pipeline of homes had a value of more than £1bn but it expects this to grow to more than £3bn within the next decade. Allan expects the REIT’s residential pipeline to deliver around £200m of annualised income over the coming 10 years. In south London, a trio of developers is seeking to turn a collection of 1980s-built industrial units into a 320-bed co-living scheme. The project, which goes before councillors in Lambeth this Tuesday, has been recommended for approval. For anyone looking for a positive in the recent re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, turn your eyes to Ireland. Savills Ireland has seen a massive uptick in searches for properties in the country from American investors. Democratic American investors that is. Could Trump be the fillip Ireland’s investment market needs?   And don’t forget, if you need to stay one step ahead of the competition this week, EG has you covered with a look ahead to what to expect in UK real estate with the EG news agenda. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: RLAM buys centre:mk stake from AusSuperLondonMetric offloads £59m of LXi assetsSupermarket REIT adds Yorkshire Sainsbury’s to shopping trolleySirius readies ‘significant firepower’ after revenue riseSEGRO bid for Tritax lapsesLandsec weighs move into operational residentialBrixton set to get 320-bed co-living schemeHow a London developer handled its contractor going out of businessCycling charity launches accreditation programme for officesTrump election drives Democrat US investors to IrelandUK housing market faces rate turbulence, says Knight FrankEG’s news agenda: what to look out for this weekVistry’s Greg Fitzgerald faces questions over ‘conflict of interest’ (£)L&G to axe jobs in new asset management division (£)Government could force pension funds to invest in more UK assets (£)Dishoom founders savour prospect of US expansion (£)House prices fall for second month in a row (£)Hotels boss was called ‘the enemy’, trial told (£)Cake Box opening its first store in Paris (£)Homeowners wait six months for heat-pump planning permission (£)Kit Harrington locks in planning battle over bats in barn (£)