Keppel REIT distributable income grows 20.8% to $159.9m

Keppel Bay Tower in Singapore was amongst the main contributors to the increase.

Keppel REIT’s distributable income from operations grew by 20.8% year-on-year to $159.9m, its third-quarter business update showed.

The growth in its distributable income was buoyed by constitutions from Keppel Bay Tower in Singapore, Victoria Police Centre in Melbourne, and Pinnacle Office Park in Sydney.

The increase, however, was partially offset by the impact of the divestment of 275 George Street in Brisbane.

Proceeds from the divestment were used to repay debt and lower Keppel REIT’s aggregate leverage, which is now down to 37.6% as of 30 September. 

As of 30 September, the REIT has $8.6 of Grade A commercial properties, 80% of which are in Singapore. 

Amongst these Singapore properties, Keppel Bay Tower posted the highest interest and occupancy at 100% and 98.5%, respectively. 

Keppel also reported that from the total of 1,717,000 sf committed in 9M 2021, most of them were concluded in Singapore with a weighted average signing rent of $10.493 psf pm. 

The REIT’s portfolio has a committed occupancy of 97.1% and a long overall portfolio weighted average lease expiry of 6.1 years.

Meanwhile, the REIT had a tenant retention rate of 64% in the first nine months of 2021. and rental collections remained healthy at 99%. Meanwhile, total outstanding rent deferrals were $0.8m.