TR Property Investment Trust PLC on Monday said it swung to a loss in the first half of its financial year, while it declared an interim dividend for financial 2023.

The London-based property investor reported a pretax loss of £517.6 million in the six months that ended September 30 from a profit of £209.0 million the year before.

TR Property Investment said the shortage of private sector rental accommodation remains acute. In Germany, the regulation of rents is 20% below market rents, and this has resulted in tenant turnover being lower than in open-market jurisdictions, leading to ‘very high occupancy levels with commensurately low payment delinquency’.

Meanwhile, the logistics market has seen ‘strong momentum’, and TR Property Investment said purpose-built student accommodation continues to fare well, with rising numbers of students competing for a limited number of beds. Rents in the private rented sector also continue to rise.

TR Property Investment said NAV per share declined to 319.37 pence on September 30 from 492.43p on March 31 and from 474.34p a year before. Its NAV total return dropped to negative 34%, compared to positive 21% in the second half of financial 2022.

Despite the loss, the company declared an interim dividend of 5.65p, up 6.6% from 5.30p the year prior, as revenue earnings per share rose 17% to 12.05p from 10.31p a year before.

‘Macro-economic and political forces continue to dominate both markets and investors’ perceptions of the future trajectory of the value of all risk assets. Inflation is everyone’s focus as we all grapple with the consequences of the unwinding of the era of cheap capital engineered by the actions of central banks following the Global Financial Crisis,’ TR Property Investment said.

It added that real estate as a leveraged asset class has been hit hard.

Looking ahead, TR Property Investment is looking for a new director to diversify its board. The company said it is ‘presently entirely white and British’, and it has commenced a search for a new director to broaden the insights and challenge deliberations through diversity of age and ethnicity.

TR Property Investment shares were up 0.7% to 321.17p on Monday morning in London. The wider FTSE 250 index was up 0.3%.

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