FINANCE: Healthcare facility REIT Primary Health Properties has extended debt terms on £235m of facilities, securing an additional £30m headroom and extending the average maturity to two years.
In December £113m of individual loans were consolidated into two tranches of 10 to 15 years with a fixed interest rate of 4.9%.
Lending margins have been reduced by an average of 55 basis points as of 21 August, with facilities available totalling £786.4m with £127.7m of headroom after development commitments.
The firm’s loan-to-value ratio stood at 64% based on a 30 June valuation.
Over the period from 1 July to 10 November, the firm increased to just over £1bn the value of its portfolio, which comprised 267 assets including five development sites.
The REIT acquired three medical centres – one under construction – over the period for £15m in total. The centres had an average lease term remaining of 25 years.
PHP’s rent roll now stands at £60.5m with an average unexpired lease term of 16 years and an occupancy rate of 99.7%.
In the nine months to 30 September, the firm posted an average annualised increase on rent reviews of 1.9%.
Managing director Harry Hyman said: “We have continued to shape our pipeline and add high-quality assets to the portfolio. We have successfully negotiated a number of asset management projects, committing capital to re-invest in our assets, adding to valuation growth by generating rental increases and extending underlying lease terms.
“The outlook for the sector remains strong. NHS England recently released its Five-year Forward Review, which further underlined the importance of primary care. Care provision will become more integrated as preventative action and social care services move closer to primary care.
“These services are already being delivered from a number of properties within PHP’s portfolio and PHP is well placed to provide additional modern premises to allow further integration to occur.”
