Leicester property investor completes fresh disposal

Custodian Property Income REIT has sold a high street retail unit in Bury St Edmunds at auction for £540,000 – £140,000 ahead of its valuation.

Richard Shepherd-Cross, managing director of the Leicester firm’s external fund manager Custodian Capital, said: “Having recently increased the lease term by five years but with annual rent decreasing from £53k to £40k, now was the right time to sell and crystallise a valuation uplift. We did not anticipate rents recovering and this disposal continues our planned programme of selling non-prime high street retail assets. We expect to recycle the sale proceeds into improvements to the remaining portfolio which we believe will better support the strategy of providing our shareholders with strong income returns.”

The company – formerly known as Custodian REIT – saw the value of its portfolio increase to £685.4m during the six months to 30 September – up by around £20m on the previous half-year and a c. £133m improvement on the comparable period in 2021.