‘Year of two halves’ wipes 12% off Custodian REIT

Revaluations wiped £91.6m off Custodian REIT’s portfolio, resulting in a £65.8m loss. The REIT, in its annual report published this morning, the REIT said the portfolio value now stood at £613.6m, with 11.8% valuation falls partly offset by £52.6m of acquisitions. Chair David Hunter said the strategy of investing in smaller, regional, core/core-plus property had demonstrated its “relative resilience” and defensive qualities in a difficult year. He added that the market was beginning to look less daunting. He said: “Since the year end we are beginning to see some optimism returning to real estate markets following six months of economic turbulence. Valuations appear to have largely stabilised and the company saw a return to a positive quarterly NAV total return per share in Q4.” Echoing the theme seen across the industry, he added: “While capital valuations have fluctuated, the underlying occupational property market has remained strong, maintaining relatively stable income returns. “The year to 31 March 2023 was a year of two halves. In the six months to September a market driven by weight of incoming capital and cheap debt pushed market valuations to levels that swiftly became unsupportable in the face of rising interest rates in the second half of the year.” To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews