Realty Income spends $921m on UK properties
US investor Realty Income Corporation’s spending in the UK reached $920.9m during the year ending December, with its appetite for growing its UK footprint largely unabated by the pandemic.
The California-based investor bought 24 properties in the UK during the year, measuring 2.1m sq ft. These have an average lease term of 10.8 years and a 6.1% initial average cash lease yield.
Of those deals, just under half (11) were acquired during the last three months of 2020 alone.
US investor Realty Income Corporation’s spending in the UK reached $920.9m during the year ending December, with its appetite for growing its UK footprint largely unabated by the pandemic.
The California-based investor bought 24 properties in the UK during the year, measuring 2.1m sq ft. These have an average lease term of 10.8 years and a 6.1% initial average cash lease yield.
Of those deals, just under half (11) were acquired during the last three months of 2020 alone.
The investor’s 42 UK properties, which mainly comprise supermarkets but also include healthcare and home improvement, were 100% leased in December. The UK portfolio accounts for 6.2% of its total rental revenue.
The firm invested just over $2.3bn across 244 properties and developments in the US, UK and Puerto Rico. Its portfolio stood at 6,592 properties globally, leased to some 600 clients.
Retail accounts for 84.4% of its global portfolio, while industrial represents 10.9%.
Realty Income highlighted that grocery sales in the UK are expected to grow to 10% by 2022. It added that Tesco and Sainsbury’s, as major supermarket operators, have more financial flexibility to focus on price investment, and expanding their omnichannel businesses, than their discount rivals.
Sumit Roy, president and chief executive at Realty Income, said: “During the year, we invested over $2.3bn in high-quality real estate leased primarily to leading operators in resilient industries, of which approximately $921m was invested internationally, where we continue to expand our addressable market in alignment with our strategic growth objectives.”
The investor made its debut in the UK market in 2019.
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