Workspace rent roll up by a third as ‘flex goes mainstream’

Workspace Group has seen rental income rise by a third to £116.6m. Trading profit was also up by almost 30% to £60.7m, but valuation changes meant that pretax profit slumped to a £37.5m loss, down from last year’s £124m gain. However, its valuation has held up better than many rival REITs, with the portfolio value falling by £93m, or 3.2%, to £2.74bn, while the like-for-like portfolio dropped by 0.3%. EPRA net tangible assets per share were down 6.2% from 31 March 2022 to £9.27, as LTV rose by 10 percentage points to 33%. But it was the 1,312 lettings across the 5m sq ft portfolio that gave Workspace confidence in the future. Chief executive Graham Clemett said it had benefitted “as flex has gone mainstream”. He added that Workspace had made “good progress” recycling capital from its McKay disposals into value-add projects. Earlier this month, Workspace sold five non-core assets, which it acquired as part of its £272m acquisition of McKay. It also sold the residential component of its mixed-use redevelopment in Wandsworth for £54m in March. Clemett said the sale was “an important step”. To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews