Simon Perkins, CEO of McKay, commented:
“Our pure focus on London and the South East continued to underpin McKay's performance during the period, drawing on our stock-picking, asset management and development expertise. The major highlight was the recently announced letting of the whole of our office development scheme at 9 Greyfriars Road, Reading. This important milestone releases 20% of our development void reversion and converts our letting exposure into income generation and the potential for capital gains at the next portfolio valuation on 30th September 2017.
“The Reading letting contributed to a £1.30 million increase in annualised contracted rents over the period when combined with three other open market lettings. These were all either at or ahead of March 2017 ERVs despite the market uncertainty generated by the recent General Election and the ongoing BREXIT negotiations. Portfolio occupancy has increased and our in-house portfolio management has maintained a high occupier retention rate.Encouraging progress has also been made with our two other current development properties which will further increase income and value once let.
“Market conditions remain generally as reported on 19th May in our year end statement, characterised by historically low levels of supply of modern business space across all our markets and steady levels of occupier demand. The medium term impact of the hung parliament remains to be seen, but our portfolio is strongly positioned for future growth.”