Good morning. Welcome to the AEW UK REIT plc investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, can be submitted at any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. Just click Q&A, scroll to the bottom, type your question, and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, we review all questions submitted today and publish responses where appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Laura Elkin, Portfolio Manager. Good morning.
Thanks very much, Paul. As Paul said, I'm Laura Elkin. I'm the portfolio manager. I'm joined here today by George Elliott, who is the AEW UK Fund Controller, and by Richard Dunling, who is one of our asset managers. Those of you who are regulars to this call will note the absence of Henry today, who usually joins me on these calls. Henry is unfortunately had surgery a short while ago. He is recovering well and will be back online with us in a few weeks' time. To start the presentation, we're, of course, today talking about AEW UK REIT, a strategy that we've been running here for 9 years, and we've been running the same strategy that I'll describe now.
Regulars on this call will, of course, have seen this slide many times before, for the benefit of anyone who's new. We are a value investment specialist, we use value investment principles to identify mispriced assets for purchase. That is those that are out of line with their long-term value fundamentals, such as vacant possession value or alternative use value, or those that we think represent opportunity. Once we buy an asset, we actively manage it to maximize its income stream. As a company, we have paid out a dividend of GBP 2 pence per share per quarter, consistently now for the past 31 quarters.
We also actively manage to unlock capital upside, and that is shown in our annualized 5 year property total return of just under 10%, which is the highest total return of any of the diversified REITs in the peer group over various time frames. At AEW UK, we are not sector-constrained in our strategy. We do not focus on just one sector. We seek value across all areas of the property market, and we think that's really important to delivering a value strategy. It allows us to seek value in the most efficient way through various market cycles. Moving on to this slide, which shows our high-level statistics as at the 30th of June. We own 33 properties, have 136 tenants.
You'll see that the share price on this page is now just slightly out of line with the market, having moved up somewhat in the past week due to some better-than-expected inflation figures. I'm also gonna pick out on this page the pie charts on the bottom right-hand side, which show our sector weightings. I think these demonstrate really well how our strategy allows us to nimbly make value shifts between sectors, depending on where we find value and where we also see risk. Of course, that's something that sector specialist REITs cannot do, we think that gives us a strong performance edge. Just over a year ago, we had a much higher exposure to industrials at around 50% of our portfolio. We had a higher office exposure at around 20%, and today that sits at 8%.
Our combined retail exposure, so those red and blue blocks together, combined only 25%, whereas today that's around 45%. I'm just picking out those themes because that shows how in the last, just over 12 months, we have taken profit from some of our industrial assets. We have found a lot of value in retail assets, and we have lowered our risk exposure to office assets. Just a few themes to pick out from the portfolio here. Looking at where our book values sit today, we think that they still represent a significant value proposition. Our average capital value per sq ft sits at GBP 67, and very low passing rents still across the whole portfolio, averaging just over GBP 6 per sq ft.
The reversionary opportunity in the portfolio we think is significant, and the 8.7% reversionary yield being higher than our initial yield is independently assessed by our valuer in Knight Frank. A particular theme for us in the last quarter has been the resilience in our occupational demand. This has been something that, of course, we've been talking about for some time, but I think over the past quarter, and you will perhaps have noticed this if you will have seen our NAV announcement that we put out last week. We have had a very busy quarter for asset management and really pleased to see that continuing. Quite a lot of those particular deals will be covered off by Richard today.
In terms of risk on our gearing, we have got significant covenant, sorry, headroom to all of our loan covenants. Our loan-to-value sits at just over 30%, with the covenant being around 60% and of course, a low cost of debt that we have in place for the next 4 years at just below 3%. The next slides touch on our performance, and I'm mainly gonna hand over to George for these, but I'm just gonna cover up the first two myself, which look at earnings per share and our dividend cover. Of course, this is a subject which is very dear to our hearts, and I know to many of yours. A dividend of GBP 0.02 per share per quarter has been paid since early 2016.
Effectively, all of the way through the life of this company. Although, our dividend has been uncovered somewhat by earnings for the past couple of years. The reason for this has mainly been due to the sale of two assets, in particular, to developers, which needed to be taken to vacancy in order to maximize their sale values, and then the subsequent fairly protracted reinvestment of those sale proceeds. We're in the process of building EPS back towards our target, and the chart below shows the significant progress that we've made in that over the last 12 months. As at today, we've still got GBP 15 million divested, and also we're waiting for income to kick in from agreement for leases that we've signed with a couple of significant tenants at our retail park in Coventry.
Once the benefit of those further things kick in, we do expect earnings to continue to improve over coming quarters, but we're really happy with the progress that we've made so far. Just speaking more generally and over the long term, in periods of underinvestment, such as following a sale, we will, of course, expect earnings to dip below target. For that reason, we're really pleased to see earnings trend upward. It's in line with our expectations, and throughout that period of dividend uncover, it's why the board continued to take the decision to keep paying out GBP 0.02 per share per quarter to investors, because they could see that earnings would, at some point, recover. Which leads me nicely onto the following slide, which looks at our dividend cover since IPO.
Earnings from property income being the block in red. The net capital gain on disposals, being that sort of floating blue piece, the 6% top up to the dividends that we've used to make those 2 pence per share per quarter payments. Our dividend cover from income since IPO has been at 94%. A really strong level, even though our dividend period of dividend uncover has been rather persistent. Thanks. I'll hand over to George, he can talk through the next few slides.
Thanks, Laura. This first graph demonstrates the company's general approach to having 3-5 year business plan tenures on many of its properties. One can see that in 2027 and 2018, the plans put in place at that time are now coming to fruition, which has driven the outperformance from early 2020 until now. Most notably, some of our major business plans, such as our Oxford asset, many of you will be aware of, have increased the degree of outperformance in the last six months or so. Next slide, please. This is more numerically demonstrated on this slide. Although rather complicated, what it demonstrates is over all time periods, as at March 2023, we delivered the highest NAV total return, and also as at June, our long-term share price total return is also the best among our peers.
Just to note, the reason why this data for NAV total return is as at March, is because it's not yet available for all our peers. This shows really, really encouraging performance and is consistent with prior quarters as well. This next slide just purely focuses on our dividend yield. Again, we're consistently among the highest dividend yield payers among the peer group. This is particularly encouraging given the fact that we've maintained 1 of the lowest share price discounts to NAV. Subsequently, to further look as at purely our total property return, again, overall time periods, we've outperformed the benchmark. Again, MSCI data for June will be available in the next few weeks, which is why this is displayed as at March.
Finally, further good news is that for the 12 months to March 2023, we've outperformed the benchmark in all property sectors. This highlights the benefits of us not only being not sector constrained, but as well as the fact that our strategy seeks countercyclical moves. I think particularly important to note here is that although the office sector has really struggled in recent times, although part chiefly driven by our Oxford asset, we've achieved great performance, which is further testament to the success of our strategy.
Thanks, George. I'll cover off some of the investment activity that we saw in the last quarter. If you've kept up to date with some of our recent NAV announcements and communications, you will have seen us discuss a theme of recycling from lower-yielding assets into assets in our pipeline, which are high-yielding, and of course, those transactions over the longer term will be accretive to the company's earnings. We continued that during the quarter with the sale of 2 assets here together. I'm talking about them in summary here because they were sold in a single transaction to 1 purchaser.
With the combined yield on sale being 6.2%, comparing that to most of the assets in our pipeline, we've got a slide on this coming up, you'll see that the average yield in our pipeline assets is in excess of 8%, with some of our recent purchases having been as high as 9% or higher. A significantly lower yield that we've achieved here. Again, over the long term, this transaction will be accretive to the company's earnings. Another reason for selling these assets is that we felt that the pricing of both was maximized at the current time. At the Euroway asset, we have avoided in selling the asset, significant capital expenditure if the tenant were to have vacated.
We were having discussions with that tenant about whether they wanted to stay on site, their business plan was looking unsure. When we received an attractive offer to acquire the asset, we looked at the figures there and analyzed that a sale at this current time would be better. Of course, those combined sale prices exceeded the previous valuation by around 12% and the acquisition price of both of the assets by around 30%. From both of these assets, over their hold period, we have been receiving an income yield of around 8%. Two really strong performing assets for the company, looking forward to getting the capital receipts from those sales reinvested into higher yielding assets. Over the course of the quarter, we also made a similar sale.
This was a sale of a vacant asset in Deeside, which was sold to a potential prospective tenant, who was also open-minded to buying the building. Again, in selling that one, we avoided a CapEx of around GBP 1 million, and again, looking forward to getting that capital reinvested into high-yielding assets. During the quarter, we did, of course, make one purchase. This is very recent, having completed only last week. At the moment, we are finding a lot of attractive pipeline assets, in some really exciting locations, and this is one of them.
It's continuing a theme of some recent purchases for us at the same along the same vein as the asset in Central Bath that we bought at the end of last year and some further assets on our pipeline. In some very, very strong locations, using those strong locations as an indicator of long-term value. Here, acquired within the center of York, within the city walls, a location that's very land-constrained. In terms of tenants here, we've got 75% of the asset let to NCP, who are known to trade well. We bought the asset off an initial yield of 9.3%, but with inflation-linked uplifts in NCP's lease, that will take the overall running yield from the asset to a level of over 10% by 2027.
In terms of capital value, the purchase price reflecting GBP 100 per sq ft. Supportive of redevelopment for alternative uses if that is needed over the long term. An asset that we're really pleased to have acquired recently. Just touching on our pipeline here, similar themes here in all of these assets to those which exist in the current portfolio and in our recent acquisitions. In terms of sectors, most of this falls within retail, and most of our recent purchases have been in retail or some exposure to leisure or mixed use. We are always, when we're making those acquisitions, paying very close attention to the strength of our tenants' particular trade. Now, in this pipeline, I'm showing you one office building. I would say that I'm doing that very selectively.
I think I've discussed before about how we have got some concerns generally about occupation holding up in the office sector. I think it's fair to say that we wouldn't be wanting to include offices in our pipeline in a very extensive way, and we would be very selective about the locations in which we're acquiring offices. This one here, shown on our pipeline, does look interesting, based on the strength of its location and also its alternative use value. Thank you. I'll hand over to Rich now, who will touch on some of our recent asset management gains.
Thank you, Laura. Just picking out the first one in Commercial Road in Portsmouth, this saw a new letting complete to Specsavers, which completed last quarter, in line with the valuers' ERV. It's a key letting, which now makes the block fully let, providing an income return of about 9.5%. The transaction demonstrates the changing strategy that we're seeing from retailers to re-relocate in towns and cities to stronger or prime locations. High street investment was strong in the first half of the year, and yields remain stable, but are likely to peak for the remainder of the year. With Portsmouth in mind, we may consider our options with this asset going forward, given the asset management initiatives have now been completed.
Picking up to further transactions, again, in the retail sector, on the retail warehousing side, there was a key renewal with B&Q completed, which provided a 9-year unexpired term at passing rent, above ERV. A key fundamental of this transaction as well, which it moved the EPC from a C to a B without any of the company's CapEx being spent. It's fully funded by the tenant. A further transaction in the asset at Shrewsbury, with Universal Consumer Products, completing a 3-year lease above ERV, and above passing rent. I think it just demonstrates the countercyclical nature of these assets against the rest of the portfolio, and both assets contributed to the nearly 2% increase in like-for-like valuation movement for the quarter.
The fund remains a big fan of retail assets, particularly high-yielding, diversified high street blocks and well-located retail warehousing, or where we know tenants are trading well. Just taking a closer look at one of the assets in Coventry. We completed a cashless transaction with the freeholder, which saw the funds gain the freehold over part of the site in return for a future option for the freeholder to surrender site, effectively Site B. The key fundamental of this transaction is that it removed the user and size restrictions on the now acquired freehold site, which allows us to move forward with key lettings to The Food Warehouse and mydentist, and also successfully gears in terms of the downsize to 2D. The fund will still maintain the income on Site B in the medium term.
The likelihood is that by the time the surrender option is opted by the freeholder, which is anywhere between 2-7 years, the income capital growth on the remainder of the site will outcome, will outweigh the income lost in Site B. Since quarter end, we have also completed the lease with Aldi, which provides a 20 year lease at GBP 273,000 a year. We've also, over this week, been given the green light on the change of use and extended delivery hours planning application to The Food Warehouse. That effectively means that that deal will go unconditional and is now lined up to complete in November. I think this asset just is a good example of why, again, investing in retail warehouse is quite key for us.
With discretionary spend set to decline this year, the flight to discounters for consumers is likely to continue. This will provide key competition between the likes of Aldi, Lidl, B&M, and Poundland, thus driving demand for space. Due to the strength in the occupational market and hopefully stabilizing interest rates, there'll be the prospect of further yield compression in the sector. For Coventry, specifically, this may mean that once the asset management initiatives have been crystallized this year, that we may consider our options in the first half of next year as to a potential disposal. Just moving on to an asset, an office asset in Bristol. The Bristol office market's performed well fairly recently, with full taker at the highest since 2017.
Whilst the well-talked-about flight to quality is prevalent in the Bristol office market, comprehensive refurbishments to Grade B is becoming extremely attractive to small TMT and professional service businesses. This is demonstrated by the letting in December 2022 to a marketing services business at a rent of GBP 40 per sq ft, which is only GBP 2.50 per sq ft lower than the top headline rents for Grade A new build office developments in the city. This, in more recent months, has created sufficient evidence to provide a 32% uplift in annual rent for the three existing tenant rent reviews, which all crystallized last quarter. The Bristol headline rents are now ahead of other major regional cities, including Birmingham and Manchester, could see further growth.
It's a sector which we have low exposure within the fund. It is a well-liked asset class. Good, high quality, high yielding reversionary offices in key regional locations similar to Bristol, would be considered potential acquisitions in the future by the fund.
Thanks, Richard. I'll pick up now again, to just cover off very quickly on with an update on our EPC ratings. I see that we've also had a question come in on this as well, which is exactly addressing exactly what I was going to talk about now. I just wanted to cover this off. Apologies here. I've just realized in looking at this slide that the two colors between the dates of the bar chart here is not particularly differentiated, but I'll discuss that, so hopefully it will become clear. We included some narrative in our recent annual report on this as well. Just really wanted to summarize where we've got to.
The darker blue lines show where we were before we started to really undertake a very detailed review of the company's EPC ratings, which is, of course, our exposure to the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards some time ago. The sort of more turquoise-y blue lines show the position as at today. You can see that we have achieved significant gains in that. With the minimum standard currently being an E, we have no registered EPCs in F and G at the moment, although we do have an exposure to around 11 units, which are expected to be rated F and G, but where we have ongoing works at the moment to improve the scores of those units.
I would say, at high level, we don't have significant concerns about our ability to comply with this legislation. Now, on those 11 units, they perhaps sound more onerous than they are. They're split over 2 sites, it's effectively, 1 industrial park up in Wakefield, our asset at Diamond Business Park, where there is a small multi-let office, which forms a very small part of the asset, with a number of small office units, in one of the units. That is where 10 of those units sit, the other unit is an industrial building down in Basildon. Effectively, we've got 2 assets here, where we are currently working to get them to levels that they comply with the MEES legislation. I'll start with Basildon.
We are in negotiation with that tenant at the moment to make some improvements to the building that will see the asset comply with MEES. If you've heard us talk before about an asset in Rotherham, where we recently did some work in connection with a letting, we were able to improve the roof of the building using some dilapidations payments from an outgoing tenant and with some CapEx that we would expect to have spent in the course of a normal letting. Effectively, in the course of doing our usual business and letting an industrial building to a tenant, we achieved a significant MEES improvement to make that asset significantly more compliant.
Now, that was on an asset in Rotherham, and why I'm talking about that now is because it is exactly what we are currently trying to do with the tenant, same tenant in Basildon. Negotiations are currently underway, and we hope to conclude those very soon. If there is CapEx that needs to be spent there, it will likely be that the tenant will potentially extend their lease, so it will be effectively a net gain on valuation to the company. Moving back to Wakefield, where there are 10 of these units, but concentrated within one small office piece of the site. This is very low cost that's needed to improve the MEES ratings here. Effectively, we just need to go to the units and cap off a gas supply, which is currently not being used.
That's underway at the moment and is expected to be undertaken at very low cost. Thanks very much all for joining us today. I know we've got some Q&A coming up, but before we do that, I'll just conclude with the main themes that we would like you to take away today. We have, of course, seen continued improvement in our dividend cover over the past 12 months, and we're really pleased with that. We've got a further GBP 15 million of cash to deploy and, therefore, expect to see significant further improvements in our earnings from the company going forward. We also see a lot of opportunity in the portfolio, a lot of opportunity to continue to improve income and values. I think that's highlighted in the very busy quarter for asset management that we have seen.
Yeah, very, very excited to see that continue. I will turn now to some of the Q&A. If that's okay, Paul?
Absolutely. If you just want to have a few moments just to review those, I'd just like to remind those online today that do please continue to submit your questions. Just while the team take a few moments to review those questions, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of the presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you rightly say, we had a number of questions throughout today's presentation, Laura and the team, and we had a number of pre-submitted questions as well. Perhaps if I could just hand back to you just to read out those questions where appropriate to do so, and I will pick up from you at the end.
Thanks very much. Turning to some of the questions, somebody has asked: 'Who are our other tenants beside NCP in York? What is the WALT for their leases and their reversionary yield?' We've got in York, of course, I said that 75% of the income from that asset was let to NCP. The four other tenants being very local tenants, you would not know them by name. The overall WALT of the asset is 8.2. The length of the income stream to NCP being 9. Therefore, those four other leases have a slightly shorter length, but they are not significantly shorter than the NCP income.
The reversionary yield of in excess of 10 that we have talked about is the overall yield, so inclusive of those other four units. Those other four units are rack rented, so they do not detract from that yield, and hence why we expect to see that overall yield from the asset increase from around 9.3 to in excess of 10, come 2027, when we see that rent review with NCP. Another question is: How do we determine the split between income distribution and dividends? I'm just going to hand over to George, to answer that question, if that's okay. Of course, as fund controller for AEW UK, this is what he does every quarter.
Thank you for the question. You'll know that as a REIT, we're required to distribute at least 90% of our property income each quarter. You'll also note that on our NAV announcements, we always use increments of 0.5. You'll have three scenarios, either a 2 and 0 split, a 1.5 and 0.5 split, or a 1 and 1 split. Using an increment of 0.5 inevitably means there's some inaccuracy in the fact that we may not completely distribute all the relevant property income. As a result, each quarter I have to make an assessment that takes into account two key factors for what our PID and non-PID split is.
Firstly, and most crucially, I must ensure that we have distributed at least 90% of property income on a cumulative state, on a cumulative basis, in order to maintain our REIT status. Also, I therefore aim to minimize each quarter what that over or under declaration of property income is. Those are the two key factors that I consider when making that calculation. To date, obviously, we've maintained our REIT status, and our degree of accuracy has ended up being, on a cumulative basis, consistently passed as audited by our external auditor. Yes, those are the two key factors.
Thank you. Another question is: going forward, how do we see the balance changing in the composition between inner-city mixed-use sites and out-of-town industrial use sites? I'm assuming that question is in relation to our investment pipeline. In a pipeline, we analyze it very much on the basis of asset-led. Each asset is analyzed based on their merit. Our approach is generally sector agnostic, but we look across all market sectors to see where we best find value at that time. We will therefore be led by where we see value in the future, but at the moment, we are seeing greater opportunity in city centers, I think.
As I've talked about, some of the exciting locations that we have been able to acquire in the center of York and the center of Bath and other exciting locations in our pipeline, are, I would say, at the moment, more focused on inner city centers, as compared to where they have been in the past, when particularly we were buying a lot of industrial locations. I think that sort of coincides with us, for some time now, having not found a lot of value, in the industrial markets. So we'll continue to be asset-led going forward, but would expect to see, yes, a continuing trend of inner-city locations or certainly urban locations. Another question is: what effect has high inflation had on our business so far?
I think in reality, and of course, this is sort of spoken. Of course, we're not sort of through this period of high inflation, and it's something that our business, as well as all businesses, will need to continue to monitor. So far, I feel that we have fared very well, compared to how perhaps we could have done. Starting with a number of factors, our cost of debt has been protected from quite early on in this period of high inflation. That is, of course, set at a level of just under 3%, that was set in May 2022 for a five-year period. We have another just under four years left to run on that fixed period.
I think another major impact is, of course, the impact on our tenants, and on their trading businesses and on their financial positions and their ability to pay rent and meet their financial obligations. That's something that we continue to monitor very carefully indeed. I think what I would say so far, through this period of high inflation, which of course we're not yet out of, is what we have seen is that, I think a lot of our tenants have been surviving, much better in this sort of difficult period than we saw perhaps during COVID. Particularly, to pick a sector, in the retail sector, during that time, of course, we saw a lot of tenant CVAs and a lot of tenants going through significant struggle.
We are seeing less of that now, I think perhaps that is because of those tenants that are remaining, they are perhaps the better capitalized tenants, having already been through that difficult period. Of course, there are strains on their business, I think that's perhaps an example of that is during the current quarter. In our NAV announcement last week, we talked about a provision that we had to make in the accounts for concerns around the Wilko Covenant, who are one of our tenants at Union Street in Bristol. Of course, their struggles as a business have been widely publicized, their plans going forward are currently not yet clear.
They are, of course, an example of a tenant who has faced difficulty because of the current time. We continue to monitor that very carefully, but so far, I think we have fared very well. Another question is: what is the company doing to narrow the discount and bolster the share price? I'd say at high level that, of course, a reminder, we at AEW UK, our shares trade at one of the narrowest discounts of our peers. And in that group, I'm referring to the diversified REIT peer group. We have consistently traded at one of the narrowest discounts, not that we're content to sit there and sort of take that for granted.
We would, of course, like our share price over the long term to reflect the value that we, as a company, see in our assets. What can we do to try and counter that? Of course, the share price is very much a factor of the market, so there's not that much we can do. We will be continuing to keep the company's news flow out there and informing the market of any positive actions that we've taken and any positive performance. I think the fact that the company's performance has been very strong compared to its peers, is perhaps one of the reasons why our discount between our NAV and our share price has been so consistently low.
From time to time, we do analyze the prospects of share buyback, and it's something that we have undertaken in a fairly limited way in the past, and we will analyze that on an ongoing basis going forward. If we feel that there is a need to take action, then we of course will. A question has been asked: Is the peer group performance table available to investors? Yes, all of the slides that we have just presented to you will be available to download, excuse me, through the Investor Meet Company website after this presentation has taken place. I apologize, I know that on some of these slides, the fonts are rather small, so that may help with viewing them.
The question was asked: How well-placed is the portfolio in respect of CapEx required to comply with MEES? I believe I have already fully answered that question, on the EPC slide. Hopefully, that is an answer to your question. Another question: Is all of our debt fixed at 2.95% for 4 years? I believe it's 2.96%. Yes, all of our 100% of our debt is fixed for the next just under 4 years, and that's up until May 2027. Sorry, I'm just reading through a couple of these other questions. Somebody has asked: Can we please comment on the potential for consolidation in the U.K. REITs sector, particularly amongst smaller REITs? Yes, I...
We have talked a number of times about how we would very much like to grow the company. I think a number of reasons for that are to have the ability to access a greater amount of our pipeline. Often we have a really great pipeline that we've built for the company, but only have the ability to access a small part of it, which in some ways can feel frustrating. Of course, that's the way things are.
In addition, though, I think it would help to perhaps sort of dilute some of the bumps that we tend to see in things like earnings and performance when, as at the current time, we are uncovered for a period through our dividend, perhaps being through not fully invested, having just made a sale. I think if we were slightly larger, it would help to dilute periods like that and perhaps provide just a little more consistency to investors. I think to say that the number one focus is certainly on our performance going forward.
The reason for talking about that ambition to grow in some way is that we do analyze all opportunities open to the company, whether that's doing a capital raise in the traditional way through the market and issuing new shares or looking at corporate opportunities. It's fair to say that we're together with our broker and our board, we do that consistently. If we feel that it's in the best interest of our shareholders, we would look to take something like that forward, but of course, it would have to be in the best interest of our shareholders. I think just time for one more question. Somebody has asked: How competitive has it been in this higher rate environment to bid for assets?
Yeah, it's certainly been a really interesting time in investment markets over the past 12 months, really, whilst we've seen quite a lot of volatility going through property values, driven both by ongoing political activities and economic activities. During that time, we have seen actually, a lot less competition for assets. We have seen investment volumes, and I'm talking here about the sort of property investment market, commercial property investment market as a whole. Volumes, as in the amount of property that's traded, have been significantly lower over the past 12 months than their long-term average. There are far less people competing in the commercial property market than there is on average over the long term. Now, we see that as a benefit.
It means that there is perhaps less pricing transparency, which increases the ability for assets to be bought, we believe, at that we believe are mispriced. If there are less people in the market, less transparency on pricing, vendors can perhaps be less sure of the values that they're selling their assets for. We can try to be more opportunistic during that period on the assets that we're buying and the prices that we're paying for them. I think that's really reflected in some of the really excellent assets that we have bought in the past 12 months, and the very strong pricing that we've been able to achieve there. Hopefully, with further purchases that we expect to make over coming weeks, that will again be proven.
We have seen less competition so far during that period of high interest rates. Back to you, Paul.
That's fantastic. Thank you indeed, for covering the first questions you can from investors. Of course, the team will review all questions submitted to them. We'll publish responses, where appropriate to do so, on the Investor Meet Company platform. Laura, I know you have concluded and summed up. Perhaps just a few final comments just before we redirect the attendees to give you some feedback.
Yeah, thanks very much. I think, yeah, very excited to see what the next couple of weeks will bring as we continue to deploy our remaining capital for investment. I think I've already demonstrated, but the impact that that will have on our earnings going forward, we, yeah, very pleased, hopefully to see our income levels from the company continue to grow over coming periods.
That's fantastic. Thank you, indeed. Thank you to you and the team for updating investors today. Please ask investors not to close the session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a moment to complete and is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of AEW UK REIT PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session. Good morning to you all.
Thank you very much.