Property sales rise at Grainger

13th Oct 2011 07:54

FTSE 250 residential property firm Grainger said it expects it expects sales from its UK residential and retirement solutions portfolios to be around £116m for the twelve months to 30 September 2011, up from £110m in 2010. Sales of other assets such as agricultural holdings will be approximately £64m compared to £40m the previous year, it said.Meanwhile sales from its development division rose to £22m compared to last year's figure of £19m. Including sales of £21m in Germany total group property sales will rise to £223m, up from £173m in 2010. "We enter our new financial year with a sales pipeline, contracts exchanged and solicitors instructed, of £34m which is an increase on the pipeline of £29m twelve months ago," Grainger said in a company statement.Net rents are expected to show a significant increase from last year's figure of £52.9m, helped by underlying rental growth as well as the addition of net rent from the strategic portfolio acquisitions during the year, Grainger explained."Otherwise we have had a limited buying programme during the year, acquiring some £22m of property compared to £63m in 2010," it added.The residential landlord said its sales performance continues to strengthen, driven by the active management of its portfoliosIts preliminary assessment of the group's valuation for the year to 30 September 2011 suggests that the overall increase in the vacant possession values across its UK portfolios in the last twelve months is around 1.2%. This movement compares positively to the decreases of 2.3% and 0.3% in the Halifax and Nationwide indices respectively. Its assets in Germany show no material change.--cj