Real estate investment trust Tritax Big Box said on Thursday that it had successfully accelerated its development programme as part of an effort to capture strong occupier demand.
Tritax Big Box stated strong occupier demand and historically low levels of available space had combined to create “rental tension” across the UK.
In order to capitalise on this, Tritax said it had accelerated its development programme, with 3.0-4.0m square foot of development starts expected over the next 12 months and an “attractive development portfolio” made up of 38.6m square foot, which the FTSE 250-listed firm highlighted holds the potential to “more than double” contracted rent over the long-term.
Colin Godfrey, chief executive of Tritax’s fund manager, said: “We continue to build momentum in our development portfolio with record levels of activity delivering 3.7m square foot of development completions in 2021. Today, with 2.3m square foot of sites either in construction or under offer, we go into 2022 in a strong position with increasing visibility on the delivery of our development pipeline.
“The progress we are making in development complements and supports our strong investment portfolio by delivering attractive and sustainable levels of total returns for our shareholders.”
