Grainger is upbeat on residential
The largest quoted housing landlord, Grainger, said yesterday it expects the valuation of its cornerstone residential property portfolio to outperform the market when it issues its full-year results in late November.
Chief executive Andrew Cunningham said the 13,000-property portfolio, about half of which is in London and the south east of England, would benefit from the strength of those markets. “I would say in terms of valuation it will outperform,” he said, referring to the recent annual valuation of Grainger’s portfolio for its full-year results.
“You can’t be blind to the fact that broadly prices in London and the south east have remained pretty strong,” he said. Grainger’s UK residential properties were worth £1.6bn on 31 March, he said.
In September, data from Hometrack showed house prices rose at their slowest annual rate in seven months in September, with prices falling monthly in all regions. The data showed house prices were up one per cent year-on-year.
Cunningham also said the margin at which Grainger sells its residential properties would be up on last year, but declined to give a specific figure ahead of its full-year results.
Grainger achieved a margin of 37.6 per cent on property sales in its 2009 full-year, down from 45.9 per cent in 2008.