LIBERTY Two Degrees (L2D), the property group that has Sandton City and Midlands Mall among its portfolio of shopping centres and offices, said its latest operational data shows further recovery after the easing of trading restrictions from August 2021, including improvements in customer visits to its malls, tenant occupancies, rental collections and turnover growth.
The group said on a pre-close investor update on Friday: “The outlook going forward needs to be tempered with the uncertainty and volatility that remains given Covid-19’s impact and the economic forecasts for our economy ... prudence should be applied when considering the direct expected impact on net property income growth most especially for tenants in the hospitality, office and restaurant categories.”
The impact of the newly discovered Covid-19 variant was unknown at this early stage but was a cause of additional uncertainty, L2D said.
An increase in footfalls in August and September were promising, and reached close to 2019 levels in October.
September portfolio turnover grew 5.9 percent compared with September 2019. This was indicative of an increase in spend per visit particularly at Sandton City given the demand for luxury brands.
Sandton City’s monthly turnover was up 34.4 percent versus September 2020, and had exceeded the comparative 2019 level by 16 percent. The food service category continued to struggle across the portfolio. Year to date the retail portfolio turnover was 29.3 percent above 2020 and only 6.8 percent below 2019.
Retail portfolio occupancy level was 97.3 percent. The office sector’s was 86.1 percent in October. As at September 30, 96.3 percent of negotiations about rental relief with tenants had been concluded. Rental collections were 108 percent for October. L2D remained well capitalised with a low LTV of 25.17 percent.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE