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British Land has reported a decrease in pre-tax profits for its first half, as its underlying pre-tax profits dropped from £169m to £158m in the six months to the end of September.
British Land’s portfolio fell by 4.3%, as revenue also dropped by 34% to £328m.
The value of the company’s retail decreased by 10.7% to a loss of £599m, resulting in £4.8bn being lost in total. Although the half year dividend increased by 3%, the total accounting return decreased by -3.7%.
Chris Grigg, chief executive said: “Looking forward, we expect our markets to remain uneven, but we have kept debt levels low, our balance sheet is strong and flexible and we have a broad spread of expertise across our business.
“We expect retail to remain challenging, so we’ll focus on driving operational performance and maintaining occupancy.”
He added: “We see early signs that some liquidity may be returning to parts of the market, and our focus will remain on thoughtfully progressing our strategy to reduce exposure.
“In London, we expect the market to remain good, with supply relatively constrained and high quality space, in well-connected, vibrant parts of town continuing to attract demand from a range of businesses.”
