Sirius Real Estate hails ‘strong’ rent collection

Sirius Real Estate hailed "strong" rent and service charge collection on Friday despite the pandemic.

The owner and operator of branded business and industrial parks in Germany said it had collected 97.7% of rent and service charges billed in the first nine months of the current financial year.

In the whole of the 2020 calendar year, it recorded a cash collection rate of 98.0% and has written off €205,000 out of total rent and service charge invoicing of €141.2m. As at 31 December 2020, from a tenant base of over 5,000 tenants, it had entered into 16 deferred payment plans with 43 tenants adversely impacted by the pandemic amounting to €0.4m.

Sirius, which invoices its tenants monthly in advance, said cash collection rates for January are in line with previous months, with 94.3% of rent and service charges billed received, versus 95.0% for the same month in 2020 and in line with previous months.

The company also said enquiry levels for January 2021 are around 20% higher than a year ago.

Chief executive officer Andrew Coombs said: "Since the outset of the pandemic, we have allocated increased platform resources and focus towards supporting our occupiers through the challenges they have faced. This active engagement has served us well, enabling us to demonstrate the additional value we can provide to our customers, while also ensuring that we have been able to maintain good cash collection levels in the region of 98%.

"Our enquiries, sales and cash collection performance, as well as the robust commitment of the German government to supporting business throughout 2021, give us confidence in our ability to continue to trade well through the Covid-19 environment. With total cash balances in excess of €70m the company has the capacity to continue to make acquisitions as opportunities arise."