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Custodian Property Income REIT PLC on Thursday reported net asset value growth in financial 2026, and said it is ‘well positioned’ to manage any potential headwinds that lie ahead for the property sector. The Leicester, England-based real estate investment trust said NAV per share was 99.7 pence at the end of March, up 3.7% from 96.1p a year earlier. NAV total return for the recent year improved to 10.0% from 9.5%, which Custodian hailed as it ‘strongest total return performance since 2022’. Pretax profit rose 26% to £48.3 million from £38.2 million. Total rental revenue grew 6.3% to £45.5 million from £42.8 million. On an EPRA basis, total earnings advanced to £29.0 million from £26.8 million. EPRA earnings per share edged up to 6.3p from 6.1p. Dividends declared for financial 2026 totalled 6.0p per share, unchanged from the year prior. Custodian Property Income shares were down 0.4% to 87.19p on Thursday morning in London, but are up 3.8% over the past year . Richard Shepherd-Cross, managing director of the investment manager Custodian Capital Ltd, called it ‘another year of positive operational performance’, citing Custodian’s acquisition of three private property companies with a combined portfolio value of £63.8 million. ‘Despite challenging capital markets conditions, we have been innovative in successfully continuing to scale the company...Since 2024, valuations have been gradually recovering across most sectors within the company‘s portfolio and we have continued to focus on driving earnings growth through our active asset management programme as well as our ability to capture the latent rental growth in our portfolio.’ Sheperd-Cross continued: ‘While the conflict in the Middle East has presented another hurdle for the recovery of UK listed real estate, we believe that the company is well positioned for the headwinds that may lie ahead, with our diversified portfolio minimising the risk of sector specific downturns and providing defensive income for our investors.’ Custodian Chair David MacLellan added: ‘Both the board and the investment manager believe in the security of investing in real assets with well-diversified, contractual income supporting a fully covered dividend and forecast rental growth, which should continue to be attractive to shareholders in the inflationary environment seen since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.’ Looking forward, MacLellan said: ‘Income and income growth are likely to form the greater component of total return over the next phase of the property cycle if long-term interest rates remain elevated for the foreseeable future with persistent inflation.’ Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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