Walls & Futures REIT PLC aims for long-term secure income

What Walls & Futures REIT does:

 () is an ethical housing REIT focused on developing supported housing and extra care homes.

The firm aims to generate long-term secure income by addressing the UK’s social housing needs.

As opposed to buying ready-made portfolios, Walls & Futures collaborates with local authorities, charities and housing associations to understand their needs before going out to the market to build new homes or acquire properties for redevelopment.

Walls & Futures does not provide the care, just the homes, which are then taken on by the local authority, housing association or charity to manage.

Through its own development, Walls & Futures can generate a profit, which protects and increases net asset value.

How it is doing

In its results for the six months to the end of September 2020, the company saw its net asset value rise to £3.96mln as at the end of September 2020, up from £3.30mln a year earlier, while rents received rose to £79,023 from £67,650 in the same period of 2019. The loss before tax narrowed to £52,293 from £92,200.

The company also said it had sold its leasehold property in Southfields for £660,000 (before costs), a price that represents a 5.7% discount to the property’s valuation as at the end of March 2020.

What the boss says: Joe McTaggart, chief executive

“We are pleased to have completed the transaction despite the ongoing economic uncertainty. We will seek to dispose of our last residential property asset in London in the coming months and recycle the capital to make further investments and develop Specialist Supported Housing, where we have successfully delivered raised the bar and delivered innovative housing.”

“This development strategy has enabled us to increase our net asset value (during the previous 6 months) and revenues in a sector which, unlike commercial property, has largely been unaffected by the economic fallout of Covid-19.”

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