Home REIT offloads more houses in scramble to pay off debts

Scandal-stricken property investor Home REIT has offloaded another chunk of its housing portfolio this week as it scrambles to raise cash and pay off its debts before winding down.

In a statement to the market today, the former FTSE 250 firm, set up in 2020 to house the homeless, said it had sold off 101 properties in a series of auctions for £18.5m yesterday, representing around 6.6 per cent of its portfolio.

While Home REIT slashed the overall valuation of its portfolio by some 60 per cent last year, the latest sales came in at 4.8 per cent above that valuation, he said.

Since August 2023, the firm has now completed on the sale of 987 properties and exchanged on a further 315 properties.

The latest sales form part of a wind down strategy for the firm, launched after it failed to restore its rental income and recover from a series of scandals over the past two years. 

In October 2022, Home REIT was rocked by a damning report from a short seller that sounded the alarm on the quality of its tenant base and housing portfolio. Since then, a slew of its tenants have collapsed or stopped paying rent, and the Financial Conduct Authority has launched a probe into the company.

City A.M. has revealed that officials at the Serious Fraud Office have also opened inquiries into the firm. The SFO said it does not confirm or deny investigations.

While Home REIT had hoped to restore its rental take and restart trading on the London Stock Exchange, the company said earlier this year it would now enter a “managed wind down” and cease trading after paying off a debt to its lender, Scottish Widows.

Last week, the company said it expected to publish its financial results by mid-September, some 21 months past the regulatory deadline.

Its shares have been suspended since January 2023.