United Hampshire US REIT's NPI hit $15.52m from March-June

Its inaugural DPU came at US$0.0178.

United Hampshire US REIT’s net property income (NPI) came at $15.52m (US$11.31m) for period of 12 March to end-June, 5.5% lower than its IPO forecast of $16.42m (US$11.97m), the company’s latest SGX filing showed. Gross revenue was also 3.5% lower than forecasted at $21m (US$15.2m).

The lower gross revenue was blamed on lower reimbursable expense recovers related to the company’s grocery & necessity properties. Although the grocery & necessity segment’s base rent revenue was higher than forecasted, it was offset by rental relief of $137,000 (US$100,000).

Further, there was a deceleration in leasing activities for self-storage properties at the onset of the pandemic, and a delay in the completion of Perth Amboy Self-Storage facility, the REIT stated.

Meanwhile, NPI was hit by a rental relief provision of $411,300 (US$300,000) and rent deferral of $548,376 (US$400,000). For certain tenants, rent relief was granted in exchange for lease extensions. This was partially offset by lower repair and maintenance costs.

On the upside, leasing trends have been increasing after the gradual lifting of guidelines from May 2020, according to United Hampshire.

Also, finance costs were 24.7% or $959,658 (US$700,000) lower than forecasted at $2.88m (US$2.1m) on the back of favorable floating-to-fixed interest rate swap rate secured by the REIT.

Overall, distributable income totaled $12.06m (US$8.8m) for the period, which was 0.2% higher than the forecast. Distribution per unit (DPU) is at US$0.0178, or about $0.024 in Singapore dollar terms.