British Land profit falls 26%

Property giant British Land posted mixed results this morning with profits down 26%.

Pre-tax profit slipped from £1.13bn to £830m, but the developer said underlying pre-tax profit grew marginally from £249m to £256m.

The developer’s property portfolio went up in value by 6.9%, driven by strong lettings performance and developments.

Office occupancy levels rose from 92.6% to 97.8% after successful letting of new space and lease extension.

The company said it was committed to a £1.1bn development drive in London to build 2.2 million ft2 of office properties to capitalize on a shortage of space.

Last week Aon Corporation became the first tenant of the Cheesegrater skyscraper after signing up to ten floors of the tower, currently under construction.

Chris Grigg, British Land chief executive said: “Our strong letting performance across our portfolio shows clearly that there is still demand from occupiers for the well- located prime retail and London office assets.

“British Land has had a very active year. We have again outperformed the market and there is real momentum in the business.”

The full year dividend was maintained at 26p.