Stenprop: ‘Strong Quarter of Leasing Activity Across MLI Portfolio’

30th July 2021

MLI trading update Q1 FY22 shows further increase in occupancy to 94.7% and like for like rental growth of 3.7%

Stenprop Limited (“Stenprop” or the “Company”), the UK multi-let industrial property company, today publishes a trading update on its UK multi-let industrial (“MLI”) portfolio for the period 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021 and up-to-date information on transactions and rent collection across the Company’s whole portfolio.

Commenting on the trading update Paul Arenson, CEO of Stenprop, said:

“This has been another strong quarter of leasing activity across the MLI portfolio, with our occupancy rate increasing by another 1% to 94.7%, the fourth quarter of improvement since the pandemic struck in April 2020. We believe that this positive trend is a strong indicator of both the imbalance between growing demand for MLI units and restricted supply, as well as the strength of our platform and the desirability of our portfolio to occupiers. We also saw similarly strong growth in rents during the period, with a like-for-like increase of 3.7%. This was driven by improved occupancy and the capture of rental reversion at lease renewal and reletting, at an average uplift of 21%, meaning that we have captured the equivalent of 5% per annum rental growth over the last four years.

“Rent collection has also improved this quarter with historic rent arrears continuing to decline. We are now closing in on our 95% collections target for most monthly and quarterly periods from 2020. The Government’s intervention preventing enforcement action for non-payment of rent means that collection rates are slower than pre-pandemic levels. However, customers are increasingly focused on securing their long-term occupation of premises and hence are keen to settle outstanding arrears and ensure they can retain their space.

“Finally, the MLI investment market remains buoyant. We successfully redeployed capital from sales into two additional MLI estates this month at pricing which was accretive and in line with our target returns. We have several estates under offer and remain on course to hit our acquisition targets for this year and complete our transition to a 100% UK MLI business by March 2022.”

News in full

In the webinar below, CEO Paul Arenson & MD Julian Carey outline the Group’s progress in the period

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Stenprop CEO Paul Arenson
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