Rupert Dickinson, chief executive of the UK’s largest quoted residential landlord Grainger, this morning gave an upbeat view of prospects for the company in the face of a slowing housing market.
Delivering a stellar set of annual results, Dickinson said: ‘Whilst we are planning for a period of slower house price growth and are therefore being more cautious in our acquisitions, we do not expect a wholesale and significant fall in prices in the short term.
‘However, our long term model can withstand short term price fluctuations and we believe that the wide geographic spread, low average price and reversionary potential in our portfolio will enable it to continue to deliver enhanced returns.’
Dickinson said that sales prices achieved since October on vacant properties had exceeded September vacant possession values by 4%.
Grainger’s results for the year to 30 September show an increase in net asset value of 23% to 732p a share. Pretax profits jumped 62% to £77.5m and the full-year dividend was raised by 10% to 6.18p a share.
The value of Grainger’s portfolio rose by 25% to £2.5bn, which resulted from a 10% increase in the value of the UK assets and purchases. The portfolio is held in five divisions – 57% is UK regulated tenancy properties, 22% is home reversion and retirement related, 10% is in continental Europe, mostly German, 7% is investment in Grainger-managed funds and 4% is development.
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