Hello everyone, and thank you for joining the I-RES 2025 Interim Results. My name is Lucy, and I'll be coordinating your call today. During the presentation, you can register a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. It is now my pleasure to hand over to your host, Stephen Mulcair, from Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to the I-RES 2025 Interim Results Call. We're excited to share our progress and achievements with you today, and joining me is CEO Eddie Byrne and CFO Brian Fagan. Today's presentation, along with the results announcement, is available to download on the Investor Relations section of our website. Before Eddie takes over, please note that some statements made today may be forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For detailed information, please refer to page 14 of the preliminary results announcement issued today, which highlights these risks and uncertainties in more detail. I will now hand you over to Eddie, who will provide an overview of the results for the first half of the year.
Thanks, Stephen. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 2025 interim results presentation. The first six months of the year have seen a step change in our operational and financial performance, leading to significant improvements in margins and earnings. We have made real progress on our strategic initiatives, including leveraging our operational capabilities to deliver a 150 basis points margin improvement. We have continued our asset recycling program, achieving in excess of 25% premium to book value on sales, whilst maintaining a focus on delivering shareholder value through our capital allocation framework. We believe the company is very well positioned to capitalize on the improving regulatory and market conditions, and over the coming months, we're excited to build on the progress that we have made.
Looking at the numbers on slide five, our intense focus on cost management has enabled us to deliver this 150 basis points increase in NOI margin because we control all of our costs through our own internalized operating platform. This has contributed in a big way to our growth in earnings. H1 2025 has built on the return to earnings growth achieved in 2024, with adjusted EPR earnings per share increasing by 2.9%. These earnings were further enhanced by the positive results from our asset recycling program, where we continue to capture value by disposing of individual units into the home buyer market. Reflecting the profit made on these disposals, adjusted earnings, excluding fair value movements, grew by 9.5% during the year. Our performance across other key metrics was achieved through this continued operational strength. We had effective full occupancy at 99.5% and rent collections above 99%.
In line with Irish REIT legislation, we are proposing a 2025 interim dividend of EUR 0.0236 per share, which is a 25.5% increase on the same period last year. As of the 30th of June, our EPR net initial yield was 5.2%, with values remaining in line with our December 2024 values. PRS prime yields have now experienced seven quarters of stabilization. We believe the outlook for valuations is positive, given that most of the headwinds, such as high cost inflation, high interest rates, and prohibitive rent regulations, have now abated. On the balance sheet side, we successfully refinanced our debt and returned surplus capital to shareholders by way of an accretive share buyback of EUR 5 million. Brian will talk more about this later.
Whilst the company has continued to deliver on the measures within our own control, a very positive and welcome development in the period was the government's announcement of revised rental regulation. I'll go into the key details later, but suffice to say, once this announcement translates into legislation, the outlook for our business will have substantially improved. We intend to make further comments on how these changes impact the business and will impact the business most likely later in the autumn. Turning now to slide seven, the strategic pillars you see on this slide give our management team the framework to maximize value creation for shareholders, and we continuously refine that strategy with market conditions and to drive value creation. The Board also regularly reviews the strategic options available to the company as part of the normal course of our business.
Our unique internalized operating platform, enhanced by a significant level of digitalization, allows us to drive operational performance and cost efficiencies through the business, whilst also focusing on increasing additional revenue streams to create value for shareholders. At the same time, we will ensure that we optimize our portfolio by recycling assets in a manner which creates the most value for shareholders by either reinvesting proceeds into our own portfolio or into strategically located bolt-on assets. We also retain the optionality, where it is considered the best use of capital, to efficiently return capital to shareholders. All of this is executed through the lens of maintaining a strong balance sheet by managing our LTV.
In H1, as you can see from this slide, we have executed strongly across all these clearly defined strategic objectives, evidenced by the strong operational performance, execution on our asset recycling program, and the efficient capital allocation in line with our framework. Turning to slide eight, the landscape for PRS assets in Ireland has materially changed over the last six months. We now see the market opportunity that we have been talking about starting to crystallize. Yields have been stable for seven consecutive quarters. At this point in the cycle, Dublin PRS assets have repriced, with these yields expanding 115 basis points peak to trough. Interest rates have come down as the European Central Bank has implemented eight cuts since the peak. New rent regulation has been announced and will be positive for returns. New building regulations have also been implemented, which will improve development viability.
Changes to the planning system have been made, designed to give greater certainty and improve development timelines. Finally, further initiatives are expected to be announced by the government aimed at improving viability and increasing liquidity in the PRS market. Coupled with the severe shortage of rental accommodation, these dynamics bring significant upside over the coming years. In the short term, I-RES can take advantage of this opportunity by utilizing our asset recycling program, which is generating strong proceeds of at least 25% above book value. This is the equivalent to selling units at approximately a 4% net yield. The proceeds can be recycled into new and more efficient units, which will have the benefits of a new lease under the new regulatory framework.
These bolt-on acquisitions will be purchased at higher net initial yields than the units that we are selling, and we will be able to leverage our existing internalized operating platform to drive economies of scale. Turning to slide nine, we have one of the highest quality and largest portfolios in the country, operated by very experienced real estate experts working to consistently deliver sector-leading operational outcomes. We also have a fully integrated digitalized technology platform, which will allow us to continue to add value over the long term. It is this operating structure which makes I-RES totally unique in the Irish market. There is no other solely residentially focused company in Ireland with a permanent capital base. There is also no other residential owner in Ireland, public or private, that is fully internally managed. We do all our own maintenance, leasing, revenue management, and property operations internally.
This leads to significant cost efficiencies for the business, whilst also allowing us to uphold the highest levels of service for our residents. As a result, we consistently deliver effectively full occupancy and almost 100% rent collection rates from our residents. Capitalizing that above market occupancy and rent collection adds meaningfully to shareholder value. Furthermore, having all these teams internally allows us to amass a critical amount of knowledge and data, which makes us much more informed in our decision-making, drives better efficiency, and gives us the ability to scale our business. As evidenced by the figures shown at the bottom of the slide, this operating model generates significant value for shareholders not only in the short term, but particularly over the longer term as the opportunities to leverage this capability crystallize.
Turning to slide 11, as many of you will know, penal rent regulation has been a consistent and key challenge for the Irish residential sector over the last number of years. On June 10th this year, the government announced it was making key changes to rental regulation in order to make investment in the rental sector more attractive and to help drive development activity, leading to an increase in the supply of new homes in Ireland. We believe that this suite of new rent regulations, together with the subsequently announced building design standards regulation change, is a positive step towards addressing the issues of viability that are facing new apartment developments. The key changes in rent regulations are as follows: landlords will now be allowed to reset rents to market value for new tenancies created from the 1st of March 2026.
Rent increases will still be capped at 2% annually or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. However, the link for inflation will change from HICP to CPI, which has historically run higher than HICP. New builds will be exempt from this 2% cap. Instead, they will be capped only at the rate of CPI. Under the new rules, each unit in our portfolio that has a lease commencement from the 1st of March 2026 will be eligible to be re-let at market rent when that unit becomes vacant. Our rents are currently estimated by independent valuers to be 19% below market, and historically, around 14% of our portfolio turns over annually.
Although these new rules will not take effect until the 1st of March 2026, we believe that the changes will be positive for the company, enhancing returns on the existing portfolio by enabling us to capture the significant embedded reversion. For the market in general, we believe that these changes will start to help address the challenges of higher yields and the consequential impact on development viability. Yields in Ireland have been an outlier relative to EU peers for a number of years now, and that's a key factor in the lack of new supply. With that, I'll now hand you over to Brian to talk through the financials.
Thanks, Eddie, and good morning to everybody on the line. Turning to slide 13, which provides a summary of our financial performance for the period, we are pleased to report an excellent performance for the first six months of 2025. Revenues decreased by 0.4% period on period due to the sale of approximately 2% of units in the portfolio through our asset recycling program and HICP being below 2% for most of the past 12 months, inhibiting our ability to capture rental growth. NOI margin, however, as a result of our intense focus on implementing cost management initiatives and driving ancillary revenues, we have achieved an increase of 150 basis points in NOI margin, increasing it to 78% in H1 2025. Occupancy in the portfolio continues to remain strong at 99.5% at 30th of June 2025. Collections also remain strong at over 99%, reflecting our continued focus on this area.
This strong occupancy and revenue performance further underlines the resilient characteristics of the business. Adjusted EPRA earnings increased by 2.4% as a result of our strong operational performance. Adjusted EPRA earnings per share increased by 2.9%, which also reflects the benefit of our share buyback program. As a result of the success of our ongoing asset recycling program, our adjusted earnings increased by 9.5%. Due to this strong financial and operational performance, and also due to the fact that we had no exceptional costs in the period, we have delivered EPRA EPS growth of 23.8%, whilst returning to profitability with profit before tax of EUR 16.3 million. As a result, we have proposed an interim dividend of EUR 0.0236 per share, in line with our policy of maintaining an 85% payout ratio and delivering a 25% increase on H1 2024 and a 7% increase on H2 2024.
Moving now to slide 14, which provides an overview of our investment properties valuations. If I could draw your attention to the left-hand side of this slide for a moment, our total property value stood at EUR 1.23 billion at June 2025, after taking account of disposals and fair value movements. In the period, the fair value gain recorded on investment properties was EUR 0.3 million, reflecting the stabilization of yields across the wider Irish residential market and positive organic growth. We are encouraged by the continued stability of yields witnessed in the market for the last 12 months after two years of expansion. Our gross yield was 7.1% at period end, well in excess of our weighted average cost of interest of 3.73%. EPRA net initial yield of 5.2% at June 2025 was slightly higher than the December 2024 yield of 5.1%.
At June, IFRS NAV per share increased to EUR 1.269 from EUR 1.262 at December 2024, while EPRA NTA stood at EUR 1.279 per share. The Irish government has announced a suite of new rental regulations, which include the ability to reset the rent of a particular unit when a tenant vacates and a new lease is put in place from March 2026. As a result of this change and the expected increase in the income profile of our properties, we expect there to be a positive impact on valuations, assuming no market yield movement. As the new regulations are set to take effect on 1st of March 2026, and legislation enacting this has yet to be passed, valuations for this period are not impacted by the change in regulations.
In the wider market context, prime PRS yields have been flat now for seven quarters, despite inflation moderating in line with the long-term target level of 2% and the ECB having implemented eight interest rate reductions between June 2024 and June 2025. On the top right-hand side, we can see that since Ireland tightened its already restrictive rent regulations in 2021, valuations have been disproportionately impacted through yield expansion. Ireland's 10-year sovereign yield is lower than many of the more developed European nations, implying a lower risk profile is attached to Ireland's credit. However, the spread to prime residential investment yields in Dublin is wider than the prime cities in these countries. The headwinds which have been impacting PRS yields, such as inflation, interest rates, and restrictive regulation, are now abating and becoming tailwinds.
Given Ireland's strong credit rating and the exceptional structural market drivers behind PRS in Ireland, we believe there is scope now for property yields to move in line with our European peers. Turning now to slide 15, financial position remains robust. In March 2025, the company successfully refinanced its existing revolving credit facility, RCF. The new facilities comprise an RCF of EUR 500 million and an accordion facility of EUR 200 million, which adds an additional element of flexibility to the company's debt facilities. The facilities have a five-year term expiring in March 2030, with the option of two one-year extensions. The facilities are priced at Euribor plus a margin of 2.05%. Hedging instruments in the amount of EUR 275 million have been put in place for five years, maintaining the company's overall level of fixed-rate debt at circa 85% of drawn facilities.
Following this refinancing, the current weighted average cost of interest across the group's facilities is 3.73% in H1 2025, broadly in line with the group's weighted average financing cost for 2024 of 3.79%. Financing costs in H1 2025 at EUR 12.2 million increased by 2.2% over H1 2024, due mainly to costs incurred for the acceleration of the deferred loan costs associated with the previous revolving credit facility at EUR 0.6 million. As you can see on the right-hand side, the refinancing has increased our weighted average maturity to 4.6 years with no near-term debt refinancing for the company. Moving to slide 16, executing on the asset recycling strategy. In H1 2025, the company completed the disposal of 16 units in total as part of the overall disposal target of 315 units, achieving sales premiums in excess of 25% and gross proceeds of EUR 6.6 million.
This takes the total number of units disposed of to date under the program to 57. As a result of these disposals, adjusted earnings, excluding fair value movements, increased by 9.5% from EUR 14.6 million to EUR 16 million. At June 30, we had an additional EUR 16 million or 16 units in a sales process of which four have legally completed since then, and we have also signed contracts on an additional two units. Of the 20 sales year to date, three have been sold to existing tenants. The company continues to actively dispose of the identified units once they achieve vacancy, and given the strong sales premium achieved in H1, we expect that the disposal premium will be in excess of the previously guided average sales premium of between 15% and 20% in 2025.
These excess proceeds will be deployed across the options available under our capital allocation framework, including recycling into new, more attractive assets. We are pleased with the progress we are making on the program and remain confident of reaching our target number of 50 unit sales for 2025. I will now hand you back to Eddie.
Thanks, Brian. Moving to sustainability. Despite the backdrop of an evolving regulatory landscape, the business has continued to make progress on our ESG ambitions through environmental action and social impact. You may have heard me say before, our vision is to be Ireland's leading provider of rental housing, recognized for quality and value, delivering sustainable growth while being a great place to work and maximizing our contribution to the wider community. Our three ESG pillars of operating responsibly, protecting the environment, and building communities support this vision, and these pillars will continue to guide our decision-making in 2025. In the last year, we have retained our gold-level EPRA sustainability status, increased our GRES rating from two to three stars, increased our S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment to 42 points, which puts us in the 80th percentile, and we have recently increased our MSCI rating to an A.
These really strong ESG credentials mean that we have very little exposure to the proposed minimum BEO standards for rental accommodation that's coming in across Europe. We have low CapEx requirements relative to our peers, and most importantly, increased tenant satisfaction and bring an engaged workforce. Turning to slide 20, the very strong operational performance and our delivery against our strategic objectives positions the company very well in this ever-changing market. The demand for high-quality residential rental accommodation in Ireland is set to remain robust over the medium term, underpinning our revenues and our business model. Coupled with the reversal of the headwinds which have faced the PRS market over the last number of years, the outlook for our business is substantially improved. The company has a strong balance sheet, LTVs within target range, valuation stabilized, and long-term flexible debt in place.
We have a high-quality portfolio, fully occupied with excellent energy credentials, strong reversionary income, and values well below replacement cost. We provide operational excellence, improving NOI margin, exceptional collection rates, efficient turnover times, and high tenant satisfaction. We have a market-leading platform, vertically integrated, fully internalized, and highly digitalized. All of these strong company attributes are set against the landscape of improving economic and market conditions, reducing interest rates, stabilized valuations, improving regulatory framework, increasing transactions, and most importantly, continued strong demand dynamics. These changing conditions bring new opportunities to the Dublin PRS market, and we are in a unique position to capitalize on those opportunities. Our asset disposal program is generating strong proceeds in excess of 25% above book values, which, as I've said, is equivalent to selling at approximately a 4% net initial yield.
These proceeds can be used to take advantage of the opportunity in the market as bolt-on acquisitions at higher yields become available. We have a highly efficient and scalable internalized platform, an exceptional operations team, and over 100 years of local market knowledge within the management team, giving us access to off-market opportunities for these bolt-on acquisitions. I will leave you with the following thoughts. We are delivering on what we promised. We are very positive on the direction of the business, and we believe that the strong operational and financial performance of the company, coupled with a positive shift in market conditions and set against the backdrop of some of the most favorable market demographics in Europe, means that the company is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the significant market opportunity that lies ahead. Thank you for your attention, and I am now happy to take any questions.
To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. The first question comes from Colin Sheridan of Davy. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, guys, and thanks for the presentation. Just a couple from me, please. Just starting with, I think, the most impressive piece of the results, which is the NOI margin. Just wondering, from a kind of high-level basis, notwithstanding that you're going to get a fair bit of help, hopefully starting next year from rental growth, that underlying improvement in NOI margin, to what level do you think that can be sustained and how much left is there maybe to play for? How much more is there potentially to go after within that margin? I guess you spoke a little bit about the direction or likely direction of the market over the coming months and maybe years as well, and just wondering to what extent you're starting to see any activity in the market. Is liquidity coming back?
If so, how are I-RES likely to play into that? I wonder if you just think about the opportunity set in relation to existing units versus maybe new development as well. Thanks.
Okay, thanks, Colin. I'll take them in the order you asked them. The NOI margin improvements, look, that is a combination of a whole load of different things. It's not one big thing. There are a couple of one-off items in there. As the benefits of those one-off items burn off over the remainder of the year, there are other costs that we've identified, cost savings that will start to take their place. Certainly for the second half of the year, we feel very comfortable about where the NOI margin is. Going into 2026, we continue to do what... Sorry, could somebody mute there, please? Sorry, Colin, maybe could you... Yeah, thanks, Colin. Sorry. Going into 2026, we have other cost savings that we've identified.
We feel pretty good about maintaining the direction of travel, give or take a couple of basis points. There are obviously things that we don't know yet going into 2026, but we think the improvement is something that we will, by and large, be able to hold on to, and we will look for further benefits over time as well. Scale will help us with those margins, leading into your next question. We do think that there is opportunity coming into the market. I think we need to be realistic about it. The regulation changes, both from a rental perspective and a design standards perspective, will take time to feed into the market. However, we are starting to see some existing stock coming...
I won't say coming to the market just yet, although there have been a couple, but certainly talking to the agents, they see increased activity in the background where people are preparing units for sale that have been awaiting the outcome of rent regs. Just to be clear, nobody is sitting there waiting for a particular outcome for rent regs or weren't waiting for a particular outcome. What they were looking for was certainty. Once you get certainty and you know what the future, what the regulations around the future look like, then pricing expectations for buyers and sellers get set because you know what the playing field looks like. We're starting to see that now. I do think the production of the regulation is important for people. They will want to actually see the bill, the draft bill. So far, we haven't had a draft bill.
We've had announcements, and positive and all as they are, that need to parlay into legislation. We do see some activity. We will participate in that, Colin, in the first instance, through the recycling of the capital from unit sales. Obviously, we have sold, I think, 57 units through our asset recycling program, and that is creating capacity first. Clearly, in the first instance, we've used it to recycle debt or to repay debt. As opportunities present themselves, and we'll be proactive in trying to look for those opportunities rather than reactive, we think we will be able to identify those opportunities that will allow us to replace that income in the first instance. I don't know. Does that answer the question, Colin?
Yeah, that's great. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Eleanor Frew of Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Eddie. Thanks for the presentation. A few questions, maybe go one at a time. The first one is that obviously lots of opinions on the proposed current regulations, but some think that these changes haven't gone far enough. Do you feel you'd like to hear that there could be new measures discussed, perhaps on the building regulation side, or do you think the current proposed reforms will be as far as it goes?
Sorry, Eleanor, the line is actually not great there. I know it's about rent regulation, but I didn't get the specific question.
Sorry, is this any better now?
A little bit, yep.
Go for this. There's lots of opinions in the market about the rent regulations. Some think it's not gone far enough. Do you see the possibility of any new measures coming in, perhaps on the building regulation side, or do you think this will be as good as it gets?
Okay, okay. Look, I mean, the changes in rent regulations, as they have been announced, I think our view is that they went a considerable distance. Sure, could more have been done? Yes. Of course, more could have been done. I think actually what the change in rent regulations did was both enhance protections for renters and make the investment case better for investors. That's a pretty difficult balance to get. Would more have been better? Yes, of course it would. I think the balance is not bad as it is. There have been other measures that they have announced, such as the design standard changes, reducing dual aspect requirements and reducing some minimum sizes. Those also have been announced in the last couple of weeks. I guess what I would say, Eleanor, is all of these things are a step in the right direction, right?
The issues that we face in the housing market are varied and very complex. All of what we have seen in the last few months are positive changes. None of them on their own are going to be a panacea, but when you put them together, we're certainly starting to move in the right direction. There may be more announcements from government. Government have said that they will be announcing more measures in their Housing for All plan, which I think will be September now at this stage. We look forward to hearing that. I would say the changes to date are all steps in the right direction. Let's see what else comes down the line.
Great, thank you. Does the more positive outlook for the business change your thoughts on your asset recycling program, or are you still set on those 315 units given the impressive disposal yields?
Yes. No, the rent regs doesn't change our view on those. If you remember back 12 months ago when we explained the criteria for the assets that we picked, those criteria were largely around the fact that we had a minority position in the ownership of that particular estate. Therefore, we didn't control the owner's management company, and therefore, we didn't control the setting of the budgets and the capital expenditure requirements and all that sort of stuff. Those sort of things are kind of important for us as a business. The changes in rent regs don't affect that. These are still assets that we don't have majority control over, and we prefer to be in a controlled position. No, we will continue to sell those assets. I think what's pleasing about the disposal of those, and we see it continuing, is the premium is obviously higher.
As we said in the presentation, it's effectively the equivalent. Our values today are called a broad 5% yield. We're selling at a 25% premium. That's the equivalent of selling at a 4% yield in the market. We can sell those assets at a 4%, but we can buy closer to a 5% when we recycle that capital because that's where yields are. That gives us, we think, a real opportunity to improve the quality of our portfolio, not just in terms of our in-price versus the out-price, but also in terms of the quality of the assets, and also potentially to be able to take in assets that are under the new rent regs. The recycling program will continue because it's the right thing to do for the business, and the rent regs give us the opportunity to invest in assets under those new rent regs.
That is a benefit. No, we'll continue to do what we're doing.
Very good, thank you. The last one from me. The bolt-on acquisitions you mentioned, can you give us more color on the scale of those? Will it be purely recycling your disposal capital, or will you start to look at larger acquisitions?
Yeah, I think in the first instance, Eleanor, you need to think about it in terms of us recycling the capital. We do continue to manage our LTV very closely, and we're conscious of that. In the first instance, we would see ourselves replacing the assets that we have sold. Obviously, it's not directly a like-for-like, but we're 57 units through the disposal program. We would like to see ourselves being able to replace those 57 in the current year if that was possible, although likely to be more like 26. We will do a further 30 this year, 50 next year. Between now and 2026, I think you should be thinking about whatever that replacement adds up to, which is probably just under 100 units.
Great, thank you very much.
Thanks, Eleanor.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. The next question comes from Denis McGoldrick of Goodbody. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Eddie and Brian, and thank you for taking my questions. Two, please, if I may. One, just on the LTV, could you comment, please, on the moving parts around the slight upward movement in H1? Secondly, just where do you, or when do you expect to see the rental growth begin to have a positive impact on revaluations? Thanks.
Yeah, hi Denis. Denis, just in terms of the net LTV, it's increased from 44.4% at December 2024 to 45% at June 2025. That's actually slightly below our internal forecast. The increase was mainly driven by two events, or two outflows of funds. One being the share buyback, which we completed in H1 2025, and the other event being the refinancing of our revolving credit facility. We obviously put in place a new revolving credit facility of EUR 500 million through arrangement fees and professional costs associated with that. Both of those caused it to tick up slightly, but we would expect that to come back down later in the year.
The rent growth, will I take that? Yeah, so Dennis, the new rent reg kick in from the 1st of March, and we have continuous turnover within our units. We would expect units to move to market rent from March of next year. Our turnover, as I said in the presentation, historically has been around 14%. We have said in the past, and we still think, turnover probably goes down because of the change in rent regs, but we don't see it going below 10%, worst case, because a very large proportion of the people who move out of our units move out because they're going to buy a house. They don't really, you know, they're not concerned about what happens to rent regs. I think we're very comfortable at a minimum of 10%, and it starts to happen in March.
That's great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Denis.
We have no further questions. I'll hand back to Eddie for any closing remarks.
Thank you. I'd just like to thank everybody for attending the call. I hope we've given you a good insight into the results and the direction of travel. We look forward to seeing many of you on the road over the next couple of weeks. Thank you.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.