British Land outperforms IPD

British Land, one of the UK’s largest Real Estate Investment Trusts with total assets of £14.5bn, continued to outperform the Investment Property Databank benchmark and delivered good growth in income, valuation and net asset value (NAV) in the third quarter, the company reported.

NAV per share climbed 4.4 percent on the previous quarter to 548p, up 25% year on year. While underlying profit before tax in the year to the end of December came in at £64m, up 10 percent from £58m the previous year.

Third-quarter estimated rental values (ERV) for offices rose 1.4 percent because of growth in London office rental values, which resulted in higher rental values. Retail ERV rose 0.4 percent.

Chris Grigg, chief executive, described it as “a strong financial performance” which reflected good progress the business made during a busy three months”. Looking forward, while the UK recovery is likely to be muted, British Land is well placed to benefit from occupier and investor demand for high quality space in retail and central London offices coupled with an increase in acquisition opportunities at more realistic prices,” he said.