Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Irish REIT 2022 interim results investor conference call. My name is Nadia, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Michelle Ang, Director of Investor Relations and Sustainability to begin. Michelle, please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for joining I-RES REIT PLC earnings call. I am Michelle Ang, Director of Investor Relations, and I'm joined today by Margaret Sweeney, CEO, and our CFO, Brian Fagan, to present to you our half-year results for the six months to June 30th, 2022. The presentation we are making today is available to download on the investor relations section of our website, iresreit.ie. Our H1 2022 result press release, released this morning, is also available on our website and RNS. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements we make today may be considered forward-looking and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. I direct you to our securities filings for a discussion of these risks and uncertainties.
I will now pass over to Margaret Sweeney, who will go through the highlights from H1 2022.
Thank you, Michelle, and hello to everyone, and thank you for joining our conference call this morning. I am delighted to report a solid financial performance for the first six months of 2022. The first half year was one of significant change for the company, and one could say that we had a hybrid model for the six months. The first month in January, we were externally managed. Then we acquired the management company, and for the three months from the first of February through to the end of April, we had a transitional services agreement in place with CAPREIT, providing IT and service support to us while we transferred all the functions and data to the company's new IT system. Since the first of May, we're a fully internalized Irish REIT.
Despite all the change, management and all employees ensured focus on the business with maintaining full occupancy across our properties, and with occupancy increasing to 99.3% at June 30th, 2022. Our revenue increased by 6.7% to EUR 42.1 million for the six months from continued investment in the portfolio and organic rental growth. This resulted in adjusted EPRA earnings increasing by 1% to EUR 19.2 million. This demonstrates the high quality of our assets, demand in the market for professionally managed rental accommodation, and the resilience of our business. We incurred one-off non-recurring costs relating to termination of the IMA, acquisition of the management company, and internalization. Brian will provide some further detail on this. We have a robust balance sheet and a healthy capital structure.
Our funding mix is across a number of long-duration facilities with a low weighted average cost of debt of 2.25%. This compares with a stable gross yield of 5.6% on our assets at our valuation at the end of June. Our LTV at June 30th was 42.6%. We have strong liquidity with no debt maturities before April 26, 2026, and there's good headroom in our facilities with 30% of our debt fixed, providing a helpful hedge against interest rate increases. We have a modern high-quality portfolio of assets, approximately 4,000 apartments and townhouses located in Dublin and Cork. This is a unique, well-invested, and difficult-to-replicate portfolio of very high-quality assets with an average age of just over 13 years. At June 30th, the assets were independently valued at EUR 1.55 billion.
That translated to 0.8% growth in EPRA net tangible assets to EUR 1.678 per share at June 30. That was up from EPRA NAV of EUR 1.665 per share at December 2021. We have strong sustainability credentials as well across the asset base, with 94% of our properties holding Building Energy Rating certification A, B, and C, and 54% of that is A and B. Combining all of these factors, across the portfolio, this translates to lower capital expenditure commitments for the business, enhancing returns. We will cover sustainability in greater detail later, but there are a few initial highlights that are worth calling out. In the first half of the year, we continued our efforts to increase transparency and positively influence the communities in which we operate.
We published our annual ESG report in March, and this is aligned to EPRA sustainability best practice reporting guidelines. We also made our second public submission to GRESB in July. Climate change remains at the forefront of our minds, and it is a priority topic for management and the board in Ireland. We are working this year towards setting carbon reduction targets and setting out our pathway to net zero. We continue to deliver on our strategy as accretive yield for shareholders. Following the acquisition of Ashbrook in January, we also have been continuing with the development of our own site. Baker's Yard, I'm delighted to report that we took delivery of that from the builder on the July 23rd. That's 61 new apartments with a very nice outdoor garden, very close to the city center.
With handover on the July 23rd, we had it fully leased up and occupied as of the August 1st. Our forward purchase of 69 apartments and townhouses at Merrion Road, which we've now called Tara View, will close shortly at the fixed price we announced previously. We expect to see very strong demand for this high-quality accommodation and fantastic seaview location in Dublin. We have one remaining capital commitment, speaking the balance of the Ashbrook forward purchase contract, where we have 44 new build apartments due for delivery next year. Our focus is very much on effective and efficient asset management, and we have completed contracts for recycling one of our properties with closing expected in the next few weeks. This supports our effective balance sheet management and ongoing liquidity. Just moving to page five.
On the left-hand side, you will see the timeline for our transition from an externally managed REIT to a fully internally managed REIT. We have now completed the acquisition of the management company, and together with the deployment of market-leading technology, we now have a unique operating platform in the Irish market. We completed the transition from CAPREIT by close of the transition services agreement on the April 30th this year. As I mentioned earlier, 2022 is a year of significant transition for the company. However, at the same time, management remains very focused on our core business and delivering value to all our stakeholders. We continue on our journey of embedding sustainability practices across all aspects of our business model. Our asset development, property management and resident services, procurement, people and culture, supporting communities we provide homes in, and hopefully adding social value in these areas.
To you, our shareholders, we're conscious of continually improving our reporting on our carbon impact and social impact. We were also pleased to be recognized with a number of notable achievements during the year. I will now hand over to Brian Fagan to bring you through our financial results.
Thank you, Margaret. Good morning, everybody. Turning now to slide seven, where I will discuss our financial performance in greater detail. We are pleased to announce a very strong set of underlying results. These have been achieved during a period when the company has undergone significant change. We completed the acquisition of the external manager, successfully transitioned business functions and data from Canada, and installed brand new IT systems. The results have also been achieved against a background of geopolitical turmoil, lingering COVID effects, supply chain disruption, and inflationary pressures. Our results for the first half of 2022 again demonstrate the resilience of our high-quality assets and the strong fundamentals of our business. Revenue from investment properties increased by 6.7% to EUR 42 million in the first six months. Occupancy in the portfolios strengthened to 99.3% at June 30th.
That compares with 98.6% the same time last year. While our total rent collections for the portfolio remained excellent at 98.7% for H1 2022. The strong occupancy and rental collection performance further underlines the resilient characteristics of the business. Net rental income grew by 4.1% to EUR 32.6 million in the period, due to investment in new properties and improved occupancy. The NRI margin moderated to 77.5% for the period, compared to 79.5% for H1 2021. The decrease is attributable to increased local property taxes and employee utilities and repairs and maintenance costs when compared against the first six months of 2021. Adjusted EPRA earnings, which excludes the impact of non-recurring costs, increased 1% to EUR 19.2 million.
EPRA earnings per share at the adjusted level remains stable at EUR 0.036 per share. The company has a strong record of delivering consistent dividends to shareholders. An interim dividend per share of EUR 0.023 has been proposed. This compares with EUR 0.029 for the 2021 interim dividend and reflects the non-recurring costs incurred from internalization. On slide eight, we see we had non-recurring costs of EUR 5.7 million, which relate to internalization, IT, and transitional services agreement fees paid to CapREIT. The acquisition of the external manager and internalization was a complex, difficult project undertaken in a short time period. The transition of business processes and migration of data onto new IT systems was a difficult undertaking. The project is now finished.
We have acquired a unique operating platform for the equivalent of one year's fees to the external manager. Moving to slide nine. As at June 30th, the value of our assets was EUR 1.55 billion at a gross yield of 5.6% and stable relative to the December 31 2021 valuation. The portfolio value increased by EUR 59 million during the six months due to new investment, capital expenditure, and some valuation uplift. There was a EUR 9 million uplift in the fair value of the total asset base, with a significant element of this driven by our new School Yard asset transferring from a development property to an investment property and some marginal valuation changes. Looking at equivalent yields, the weighted average was 4.53%, and at individual asset level ranges from 3.9%-5.41%.
Our average rents across our portfolio are estimated at 10% below market rents. Turning to slide 10. Managing and maintaining a strong balance sheet with adequate liquidity is one of our key financial priorities for the business. Our net asset value grew to EUR 889 million, representing a stable portfolio valuation. EPRA Net Tangible Assets per share increased by 0.8% to EUR 1.678, driven by fair value gains on investment properties as well as profits from operations. Turning to our capital structure. We take a proactive approach to managing our debt to ensure the group has laddering of debt maturities and also that the group's leverage ratio and interest cover ratio are maintained at a sustainable level.
The company has total credit facilities of EUR 800 million, with a weighted average debt maturity of 4.7 years and no debt maturities before April 2026. The weighted average cost of debt during the period end of June 30th was 2.25%. The overall facilities of EUR 800 million can be split into two tranches. The company has a revolving credit facility of EUR 600 million with a consortium of five Irish and international banks. During the period, the term of this facility has been extended out to 2026 on the same terms. The EUR 200 million in outstanding private placement notes have a weighted average interest rate of 1.92% inclusive of swap costs, giving a fully hedged position. The first repayment becomes due in March 2027, with laddering to 2032.
Gearing increased marginally during the period, with an LTV of 42.6% at June 30th, compared with 40.7% at December 31st 2021. The increase can be attributable to our acquisition of Ashbrook. Our pro forma LTV will be 41.8% following the completion of our School Yard development in July, purchase of Tara View in August, and the contracted disposal of Hampton Wood, which we have also announced today. Now turning to Margaret, who will speak further on our investment strategy and sustainability progress.
Thank you, Brian. The strong performance we delivered in H1 reflects the quality of our portfolio with modern homes with an average age of 13.1 years. Our assets are in very attractive locations with extensive amenity offerings in the local areas, and all are close to excellent transport links. We are primarily focused on the mid-tier market segment with average rents of EUR 1,688 per month, which are 16% below the recent RTB quarterly index and approximately 10% reversionary. The majority of the portfolio is made of two-bed residences at 91% of our units have monthly rents below EUR 2,000 per month. This also includes professional management and service 24/7.
I-RES's portfolio is second to none in the Irish market, with 94% of our properties boasting Building Energy Rating certifications of A to C, which is value-added for residents and the company in the current environment of increasing energy costs. We're making good progress in reducing consumption across our portfolio. Last year, the like-for-like total electricity consumption decreased by 11% to circa 164 kWh, while our Scope 2 total indirect greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 8.6% to 84 metric tons CO2. Despite continued growth and additions into our asset base. Just moving to slide 13. We have successfully continued to execute on our strategy with disciplined capital allocation and generating accretive returns. During 2022, we contracted and are delivering circa 6% portfolio growth.
We took delivery of 108 units in Ashbrook earlier this year, with a further 44 due for delivery next year under a fixed price contract. This acquisition delivers a gross yield of 5.4%. As I mentioned earlier, we were delighted to take delivery of our new development of 61 apartments. Now called The School Yard in July 2022, and was successfully leased up by the first of August, giving gross yield on cost of 6.9%. We anticipate closing our forward commit acquisition of 69 units at Tara View on the Merrion Road very soon. This is a fixed price with no variation, and with lease-up expected to generate a gross yield of 5.6%.
As part of our continuing strategy delivery, we also announced the recent disposal of 128 apartments at Hampton Wood, which was also accretive to valuation. We have demonstrated a track record of effective strategy execution and balance sheet management with accretive returns for shareholders. All of our strategic investments over the last period brings our portfolio of assets across 39 properties to close to 4,000 homes. On slide 14 and the next three slides give further information on these three excellent additions to our portfolio of homes to rent. These are high-quality assets acquired or developed accretively and adding much-needed new supply to the Irish rental market. In total, our investment in these three assets was EUR 135 million.
Through effective asset management, as Brian has outlined, our LTV was pro forma increased by circa 1.1% over December 2021 as a result. Slide 14 gives you some further details on Ashbrook, and on slide 15 we set out details on The School Yard. This asset, I should mention, also has strong sustainability credentials designed to a LEED Gold standard, and this is now fully leased up. On slide 16, you'll see some nice photographs of the Merrion Road development we now call Tara View, and that's expected to close very shortly and be made available for leasing. We expect strong demand for this extremely high-quality asset in a fantastic location. This was a fixed-price contract, and we will be delivered with no variation, with expected yield of 5.6%. Turning to slide 17.
We continue to invest in our people and the communities in which we operate. The I-RES team have really embraced sustainability and ESG across the business, which I am very proud to see. We are delighted to disclose our recent Diversity and Inclusion Silver Award. We were also recognized in a review of STOXX 600 listed companies across Europe to reach the highest standards, one of only two Irish companies awarded Best Practice Leader in the European Women on Boards Index, which we are particularly proud of. We actively engage with the residents to improve our service standards, and we've provided essential support to all our residents during the COVID lockdowns. We are particularly proud of our social engagement with local communities in which we operate.
Through our ongoing contribution of volunteering, donations, sponsorships, online and in-person events, we hope to make some contribution and add some value to the areas in which we operate. Just to mention a few, we actually partnered with Tallaght University Hospital. We converted commercial space into a day surgery facility, which is fully up and operating. This supports the main hospital in Tallaght, and we're also now currently discussing opportunities for them to develop a women's health facility very close to their campus. We are proud supporters of Dragons at the Docks fundraising program for homeless and other charities, and we're all training very hard for the first of September event. This social impact engagement is very important to all of us in I-RES employees and management.
Turning to slide 18, I want to also assure you that climate and ESG considerations continue to take priority across our business, underpinning how we operate and our investment decision-making. We are committed to playing our part in supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy while continuing to positively influence the communities we operate in, deliver sustainable living solutions, and create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. We report under several ESG ratings to provide an overview of progress and activities and to allow comparison with our peers and other companies. We continue to review rating agencies and assess the need to engage with them. As such, we have added a number of rating agencies, for example, CDP, and we will make our inaugural submission this year to CDP.
We have made significant progress across several key rating criteria, receiving sBPR Gold Award and Most Improved Award from EPRA in 2021, and we expect to maintain this award in 2022. We have also submitted our second submission to GRESB in July. Management and the board of I-RES are committed to net zero, and in 2022 we were working on setting our science-based targets. We have conducted our baseline assessment, which will inform the target-setting process. We're using CRREM, the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor, to assess science-based energy and emissions reduction pathways in order to align with Paris Agreement ambitions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Market fundamentals are on slide 19. Just to cover some of the key highlights, for the market in which we operate.
The macro fundamentals underpinning the business remain very strong and continue to be supportive of long-term sustainable income and growth. Ireland's GDP for 2021 was the highest in the Eurozone at 13.5%. After several adjustments by many economists, as we're seeing over the last number of months, Ireland's GDP now is forecast to grow by 5% this year, well ahead of Germany, which is sub 1%. -1% in France, around 2%. Rental stock is near record lows nationally and in Dublin in terms of availability. Daft estimated that there were fewer than 700 homes listed to rent nationwide in August 2022. In addition, smaller landlords continue to exit the rental market, with quality and professionally managed rental accommodation increasingly in demand.
Ireland continues to boast a low unemployment rate, and currently we're below the 2019 pre-COVID level, and 1.7% below the average Eurozone unemployment rate. Ireland's population is forecast to grow by almost 1 million people by 2040. That's roughly 20% growth on the current population of 5 million people according to the latest census. This growth is driven by a high birth rate and inward migration, supported by strong foreign direct investment inflow by multinational corporations across several sectors including IT, pharmaceuticals, and finance. We also have one of the youngest populations in the EU, with about one-third of the population under the age of 25, based on recent census 2022 figures. Growth is actually exceeding estimates that were made in the past in relation to population growth.
All of this is actually translating to, you'll see on slide 21, housing demand remaining very strong and against a structural undersupply of housing, which is forecast to continue for some years. This is of real concern to everyone in the housing sector in Ireland across government and the real estate sector itself. New housing completions in Ireland reached an estimated 20,400 homes in 2021 to below the 2020 level. It's a strong start to completions in quarter one of 2022, and the expectation now is to deliver approximately 23,000 homes in 2023 and 27,000 homes in 2024. This is significantly behind the current demand levels and estimated supply needed every year for this young and growing population. The IDA announced that 18,000 new jobs are expected to be created in H1 of 2022 alone.
Investment in IDA-supported companies has grown by 9% in the period, and there are now close to 1,700 multinational operations supported by IDA in Ireland. The strong growth in H1 2022 exceeds 2021 figures, which was itself a record year for foreign direct investment into the country with over 29,000 new jobs announced in 2021. Our asset portfolio is ideally located near many of these centers of investment and commerce and with very good public transport connectivity. To summarize, against a significant transition and change for the company to an internally managed REIT this year and an increasingly challenging macroeconomic backdrop as we come out of COVID, the company has continued to deliver a strong performance across all parts of the business for the first half of 2022.
We are acutely aware that the year ahead will be impacted by heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. However, the company is well positioned and has the right strategy and business model to meet the challenges of rising inflation, increased cost of living, and then interest rate increases, as well as energy challenges that will arise. As I've outlined, the fundamentals in the Irish market remain strong. The company has a strong track record of proven execution on its strategy. With the internalization of management and the new technology, we are well positioned to drive operational efficiencies and achieve scale from this integrated and unique operating platform in the market. Our modern asset portfolio of close to 4,000 units across apartments and townhouses in two main cities, Dublin and Cork, has strong operating metrics with a 99.3% occupancy.
The business is highly cash generative and has high sustainability credentials. Our balance sheet is robust with cost of funding at circa 2.25% and with no maturities for the next four years before April 2026. These long dates, including approximately, as Brian said, 30% fixed rate debt facilities, provide us with a hedge against interest rate increases. I-RES, as an Irish company listed on Euronext Dublin, will continue to play a key role in delivering housing solutions to the Irish market on a sustainable basis for the long term. I would like to thank you all for joining us this morning and your time. Now we'll hand back to the call operator for questions and answers. Thank you.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Colin Grant of Davy. Colin, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning, everybody, and thanks for doing the call. I have a couple of questions if I could. Just firstly, I noticed the interim dividend was cut from, I think EUR 0.029 last year to EUR 0.023 in H1. I'm just wondering if you could just give an update just to make sure there's no change in dividend policy and so on, just maybe give an update on the outlook on dividend policy going forward. That's the first one.
Secondly, just in terms of your debt, the mix between fixed and floating, could you just give us an update, please, on what plans you have around how the fixed versus floating is going to evolve going forward and any plans for change you might have in that direction? Many thanks.
Good morning, Colin, and thank you for joining us. I took the dividend policy, and I'll just hand over to Brian on the debt question. Our interim dividend of $2.3 per share, as you know, as a REIT in Ireland, we have to pay out a minimum of 85%. Our policy is approximately to pay out 90%. Our policy is actually consistent. What's impacted in the first half year, we had a significant transition in the company from an externally managed REIT to an internally managed REIT. In addition to that, we also implemented very significant new technology, market-leading technology across the business. We now have a very unique operating platform, and this actually cost money, as Brian has outlined. We've achieved all of that transition, which is now fully delivered.
that actually has impacted the dividend. We prefer to be prudent and hold to a consistent policy of 90%, and that has impacted the interim dividend as a result.
Thanks, Margaret.
Colin, just in relation to your debt question, okay. Currently, approximately a third of our debt is fixed, fully fixed and fully hedged position, right, of 1.92%. Okay. Our RCF has been a floating facility, okay, by reference to Euribor. There was a floor on it. Okay. You know, when rates were negative, we didn't get the benefit of that. Right. Okay. Obviously rates have to go above zero before it starts impacting. Look, what we've seen has been Euribor has. I mean, obviously ECB announced increases in rates in July. We've seen Euribor go up slightly above right okay to 0.2338%. Right. Okay.
Look, that has, you know, a certain impact, right. Okay.
Yeah. Is there any change, Brian, just on that, do you have any plans to, for example, take out more fixed debt and change the mix or the plans just to leave that?
I mean, look, as part of the management of our overall debt strategy, Colin, you know, we absolutely do look at, and we'll continue to look at the mix, okay, between you know, the floating and the fixed, right. Okay. You know, we're always managing it, right. Okay. Indeed, as part of the extension, right, okay, of our RCF facilities out to 2026 on the same terms, right. Okay. Which we did earlier this year. We did negotiate a concession, right. We previously had a concession from our lenders, right, that we could basically bring in EUR 200 million of alternative financing and hence the original notes, right. Okay.
The limit was EUR 200 million, but we have negotiated another EUR 200 million of alternative facilities. That does give us options, right? Okay.
Sorry, just so I clarify. You've potential for EUR 200 million of additional private placement notes that could be at fixed rates. Fine. Am I getting that right?
Yes. Yes. Yes. You're getting that right. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, okay. Will there be a decision taken at some point, I mean, I guess you review this in a real-time basis, but to take those out, I guess, is the final question?
I think it's probably.
Decision.
It's something that we review constantly on a real-time basis, Colin. Right.
Okay. Fine. Yeah. No, that's helpful. Thanks for that, Brian.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads now. Thank you. We currently have no further questions, so I'll hand the call back over to Margaret Sweeney for any closing remarks.
I'd like to thank you all for joining us this morning. We appreciate your time and also to thank you for your support for the company as well. We look forward to talking to you over the coming days as we present our results to investors. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.