Yew Grove REIT, which owns a diverse portfolio of Irish commercial property assets, expects 98% rent collection this quarter.
The company said in a trading update that all of the rent that has been billed has been paid with the exception of:
- around 1% from a large multi-national that has been delayed due to a problem with their payment system, and is due to be paid imminently;
- around 1.3% that has been deferred and is expected to be recovered under a repayment plan from 1 October 2020;
- around 0.7% that is due from non-food retailers. Yew Grove is in negotiations with them over an appropriate payment plan.
Asset management update
Yew Grove also announced a number of leasing transactions that has reduced vacancy across its portfolio from 11.9% to 7.5% by estimated rental value (ERV).
The biggest letting was at its Birch House office at Millennium Business Park in County Kildare, where a large multinational company has let the entire 40,333 sq ft building on a 15 year lease at a headline rate of €16.50 per sq ft (just under €700,000 a year).
The company has also agreed two further new leases. The first at its vacant retail space at Unit 24 in the Bridge Centre, in Tullamore, to a major Irish financial institution on a 10 year lease for an annual rent of €25,000, which is in line with its pre Covid-19 estimate of ERV.
The second is at its Blackwater House office in Mallow, where North Cork Enterprise Board has signed for a 10 year lease on 1,457 sq ft of space at a rent of €14 per sq ft, an increase of over 25% on the rent they were previously paying.
Yew Grove has also agreed the surrender of the lease of a tenant at its IDA Business and Technology Park, in Garrycastle, Athlone, and re-let the 10,540 sq ft to KCI Manufacturing (a subsidiary of 3M). KCI already occupies two buildings that sit adjacent to this building and the letting satisfies KCI’s immediate expansion plans. The new lease is for five years and the rent, of €9.29 per sq ft, is at a 24% premium to the previous rent.
The company has also agreed a re-gear of a lease for 12,290 sq ft of office space at its property in Old Mill Lane in Listowel, removing the July 2022 break option extending the lease to July 2027 in exchange for a €4 per sq ft reduction in rent.
The Company has agreed the surrender of the lease
At 13 Holly Avenue, on the Stillorgan Industrial Park, Dublin, the group has agreed the surrender of lease of the 16,990 sq ft building in return for a sum equal to all rent due to the lease end (2 February 2021) as well as €300,000 for dilapidations. The property is currently being marketed for rent or sale.
YEW : Yew Grove REIT expects 98% rent collection