Custodian Property Income REIT PLC (LSE:CREI) has offloaded a high-street retail unit in Bury St Edmunds at auction for £540,000, marking a 35% premium ahead of valuation.
Commenting on the disposal, managing director Richard Shepherd-Cross of Custodian Capital, the group’s external fund manager, said: “Having recently increased the lease term by five years but with annual rent decreasing from £53,000 to £40,000, 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.”
Shepherd-Cross expects to recycle the sale proceeds into improvements to Custodian REIT’s remaining portfolio of diversified UK properties, which he believes “will better support the strategy of providing our shareholders with strong income returns”.