Slow improvement at Segro

15th Nov 2010 07:54

Lettings rose and the voids fell in the pat three months at property developer Segro, but space becoming empty also picked up.The overall group vacancy rate reduced by 0.6 percentage points in the period to September to 13.4%. In the UK, the vacancy rate improved from 14.7% to 14.5% in the quarter, while in Continental Europe, reflecting the letting momentum across the portfolio, the vacancy level improved by 1.3 percentage points to 11.1%.Lettings in the quarter rose to £119.2m though space returned rose to £69m from £27m. New rental income was £8.3m, though rent lost on space returned rose to £6.8m."We delivered strong lettings progress in the period and, at the end of September, our vacancy rate had fallen to 13.4%. Occupier markets are still challenging and, as expected, takebacks remained high in the third quarter as customers consolidated their space," chief executive Ian Coull said."Enquiry levels continue to be robust and demand for pre-let developments continues to be encouraging. The capital values of good quality industrial assets appear to have stabilised across our markets and there is good demand for product from a range of investors," he added.