Real Estate Investors PLC on Monday said in the first half of 2024, the company successfully made use of proceeds from disposals to further its debt reduction strategy which will continue in the second half.

The Birmingham, England-based real estate investment trust is focused on commercial property assets across all sectors in the Midlands.

Year-to-date, planned disposals of £11.9 million have either completed or conditionally exchanged at an aggregate uplift of 4.1% against December 2023 valuations.

Proceeds from these disposals have been used to pay £7.3 million of debt in line with the company’s stated strategy to prioritise debt repayment.

Total drawn down debt now stands at £47.1 million, down 27% from £64.2 million in June last year.

Chief Executive Paul Bassi said: ‘Sentiment so far in the second half of the year has been positive with business confidence in our region growing by 15 points since the result of the election in July. We believe the recent 0.25% interest rate reduction, announced by the Bank of England last week, will further enhance confidence and support a return to more normalised investment market conditions that will allow us to start to sell our larger assets, utilising funds more rapidly to eliminate our debt with a view to then returning surplus capital to our shareholders.’

REI said it will continue to progress disposals with a ‘strong sales pipeline’ in the second half.

Real Estate Investors shares were down 2.5% to 33.17 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

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