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British Land has seen the valuation of its portfolio cut by £2bn during FY21, falling from £11.16bn to £9.13bn in the period.
The 10.8% year-on-year decline in the group’s portfolio value was driven by a 24.7% decrease for the year ended 31 March for British Land’s retail operations.
The property group also revealed that its pre-tax losses totalled £1.08bn, reaching almost the same levels as FY20’s £1.1bn losses.
In terms of underlying profits, the shopping centre and retail park owner saw a 34.3% year-on-year decline to £201m.
This fall in profits was driven by retail rent collection of 71% throughout the period, with the company’s 99% office collection rate unable to offset the losses.
Simon Carter, CEO at British Land, said: “While Covid-19 has clearly impacted our performance, with the portfolio value down 10.8%, we have a strong balance sheet and have already delivered excellent progress against our four priorities.
“We’ve sold £1.2bn of assets, overall 6.2% ahead of book value, completed our first net zero development at 100 Liverpool Street and committed to develop Norton Folgate and 1 Broadgate, where we have pre let nearly 30% of the office space to JLL.”
Looking ahead, he added: “In retail and fulfilment we will continue to target value opportunities in retail parks and development-led logistics in London.
“We will maintain our focus on the everyday management of our spaces: driving rent collection, supporting our customers and making our space more sustainable.”
