13th Aug 2015 06:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Residential property company Grainger PLC on Thursday said trading has been strong in the first ten months of its financial year and said it is seeking to sell its wholly-owned residential property assets in Germany.
The FTSE 250 company said its sales of vacant properties achieved prices an average of 8.3% above September 2014 possession values, at margins of 51.2%. In the same period a year earlier, the group had achieved prices 12.7% higher but on margins of 48.6%. The group added its sales pipeline for vacant reversionary assets was at GBP213.8 million at the end of July, compared to GBP228.1 million a year earlier.
The group said it saw continued strong levels of demand for its managed UK market rented properties in the private rented sector, with rentals up 6.0% on a like-for-like basis in the ten months to the end of July on new lets and 2.3% on renewals, compared respectively to 4.2% and 3.2% a year earlier.
Since the start of the financial year, the group has acquired 929 tenanted private rented sector units in the UK for GBP83.3 million.
In addition to the trading update, Grainger said it has appointed investment bank Lazard to advise on the sale of its residential property assets in Germany. The group said the sale will allow it to focus on its operations in the UK and take advantage of the currently robust residential property market in Germany.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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