Grainger sees 'positive' start to trading year

Grainger reported a 4.1% overall like-for-like rental growth in the year to date, beating the 3.5% figure estimated by analysts at Barclays on Friday, with strong demand for its private rented sector homes leading to 3% like-for-like boost for the division.

The Newcastle-based group witnessed an annualised rental growth of 5.4% on regulated tenancy reviews, beating the 4.2% it saw during the same period twelve months earlier.

Completed residential sales for the four-month period were flat at £29m, as was Grainger's total sales profit of £15m, despite overall completed sales dropping from £39m to £29m due to delays in development land sales.

Grainger advised investors that its residential pipeline was in line with the previous year at £55m.

Helen Gordon, chief executive, said, "The start to our financial year has been a positive one. We have seen good demand for our rental homes and strong rental growth, ahead of last year. We launched our newest private rented sector "PRS" development in mid-January, Argo Apartments in Canning Town, London, and in three weeks we have successfully let nearly forty percent of the 134 apartments at c.3% above our forecast rental levels."

"Since announcing our FY17 results in November, we have secured an exciting new PRS build to rent development in Sheffield, one of our target cities, that will deliver 237 new homes. Our total secured investment pipeline has increased to c.£690m for 4,300 high-quality rental homes, relative to our £850m target," she added.

As of 0840 GMT, shares had ticked up 0.66% to 273.20p.