Welcome to the AEW UK REIT plc Q3 update. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself, however, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses when it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll, and I would now like to hand you over to Portfolio Manager, Laura Elkin. Good morning.
Thanks, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Apologies, we are broadcasting to you camera off today, just due to some technical problems, but hopefully you, you'll be able to see us, back again for, for next quarter. So hi, good morning, everyone. I'm Laura Elkin. I'm the portfolio manager for AEW UK REIT. We are going to start today with just a couple of slides, informing you about our strategy. And this is the same strategy that we have been running for the past, gosh, coming up to 11 years now for AEW. It's a strategy that really plays to the strengths of our team, so that is as stock pickers, as asset managers, and just as real property geeks.
Because all of our team here are chartered surveyors, so we very much know the ins and outs of property and how to maximize value. And if I had to describe that strategy in one sentence, I would say that we are sector-agnostic value investors, and that means that we can look across the whole of the U.K. commercial property market to find pockets of value where we see it best from time to time. And that generally sees us always buying strong locations, to make sure that we can maximize tenant demand and investor demand for our properties going forward. We like to buy assets that offer high levels of income, because we believe that that is the best starting place for outperformance.
We also like to buy assets that, at the time of purchase, we are paying a price that represents a low capital value per sq ft. And this is so that we can start off with not only a defensive capital starting point, but also have a platform for growth going forward. Now, once we own those assets, we very actively manage them to maximize income, which is hopefully demonstrated to you by our dividend, which is one of the highest in the investment company space, and has been paid now for consistently for 41 consecutive quarters, so effectively since the completion of our initial ramp-up. We also work very hard to maximize the capital value of our assets, too. Now, anyone who follows our news stream would see that we put out our shareholder update and dividend announcement yesterday.
And another really strong quarter for the company, we've had some great asset management gains during the quarter, which Henry will come on to talk about shortly. A slight dip in value, but only very small there, which was also outweighed by a profitable sale that we made during the quarter as well, so NAV slightly up. What's really positive for me in the announcement that we put out yesterday, that we were able to announce very strong earnings for the quarter. And that follows on from having a very strong year for earnings during our full year ending March 2024 as well.
For me, that really speaks to how we have worked very hard to grow income in the company, over that time period, but also, how we are currently in a fairly stable period for the portfolio, sorry, having been fully invested since last summer. We have been fully invested for that time period, and that is reflected in those earnings, too. The next slide is showing us here just some high-level statistics on the company. You'll see that we currently own 34 properties with just over 130 tenants. Our net initial yield at just over 8% compares very favorably to our reversionary yield at 8.84%.
That gap between that initial yield and reversionary yield is determined by our independent valuers and really reflective of the kind of income growth that they believe we could achieve in this portfolio. Of course, not all tomorrow, but this is what we are spending time on, our hard work, asset managing, to try and close that gap really and increase the income stream of our current portfolio. The vacancy rate there at just under 6% is about where I would expect to see it over the long run. It kind of very often bounces between 5%-10%. As you will hear us talk about today, and as many of you will know, we very actively manage this portfolio, so you will rarely see us with a zero vacancy rate.
We like having some vacancy here, because it gives us, assets to play with, it lets us talk to the tenants, it allows us to bring units to the market and drive rental income. So that is very important for our asset management strategy, and it's just where we would like it to be. I'm just gonna touch as well on the bottom pie chart here on the right-hand side of the page, which shows you our current sector weightings in the portfolio. You'll see that we still have a very strong weighting towards industrials at 37%.... We've been building up our retail exposure, both on the high street and in retail warehousing over the past couple of years. So those two retail sectors combined now total about 35%.
We have always had a fairly low exposure to the office market, and that has certainly assisted our capital values in recent years. And you will see that there at just 10% of the portfolio. I'll hand over to Henry now, who can talk through some slides on our recent performance.
Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. This first slide looks at our NAV total return performance versus the peer group, 9.3% ten-year annualized NAV total return to September 2024, and 11.1% five-year annualized NAV total return to September 2024. Now, the main point I want to draw your attention to here is where we see our performance diverge from the peer group in 2019. Now, this happened for two main reasons. One, you'll all be aware, obviously, that was the time of COVID, and at that time, we had a very high weighting to industrials and greater than 55% at the time. We also had a very low retail weighting, which was about 13% combined across high street retail and retail warehousing.
That really sort of highlights the benefits of a diverse strategy. We were overweight in industrials, underweight in retail. Obviously, we're all aware that the industrials performed very well during that period, and with obviously a huge trend in e-retailing and obviously the high streets and retail warehousing did suffer to an extent because obviously of people being kept in their homes. The other main point I'd like to point about is the performance moving away because of the WAULT, the weighted average unexpired lease term of the portfolio, and it's around 4-5 years generally. That is obviously the point in time where the asset management team engage with tenants on lease expiries or where there might be a break option, and there will be lease renewals or lease re-gears.
Through that asset management mechanism, we are either sort of moving on rents or extending leases and obviously adding value. So it's not a surprise that we see our performance move away then. This next slide looks at our property total return versus the MSCI benchmark, which is what we report to. Five-year property total return outperformance of 6.7% and 10-year outperformance of 4.7%. So as you can see, this is 6 months, 12 months, going up to a 10-year performance. Just drawing your attention to 7 years and 10 years. I think what is impressive here is the consistency of our performance and outperformance. So over 10 years, it's double of the MSCI benchmark.
Over the 5-year period, the performance is the strongest, that is at the time when we had such a high weighting to sheds, and more recently, we've been selling those sheds, at yields kind of around 6% and reinvesting that into higher-yielding assets, in the retail sectors. At 3 years, you'll see obviously, the performance isn't as strong, but I think what's impressive here is that our outperformance is the strongest over this time period, being a 7.2% outperformance to the MSCI benchmark. And then more recently, over the 6- and 12-month periods, the performance a little bit muted, but that's probably because we have not been fully invested. So we sold Coventry in December last year, and we reinvested those proceeds into Leicester and Hitchin, which obviously you are aware about.
So this next slide looks at our 10-year track record. As Laura said, we, we went through our 10-year track record earlier this year. Apologies, there's quite a lot going on on this chart, but if you sort of move your eye from left to right, this tracks where the total total return has been coming from, from 2017 to today. I suppose there's kind of three main themes from this chart. I think the first is the consistency of the income. So that blue bar, which is, you know, very much the meat in the sandwich on this chart, just running straight through the middle, are around 8%, which is obviously not surprising, bearing in mind that that's what we typically buy our properties at, net initial yields of 8%+.
It does dip off a little bit around 2022, but that was because we were looking to achieve a total return strategy on two assets, which led us to having higher vacancy, and that was Oxford and Glasgow, both which we sold to developers for alternative uses. But as you can see, that consistent income running right through the middle here. I think the other two themes are countercyclical buying and selling and the benefits of diversification. So with regards to countercyclical buying and selling, we were buying industrials and offices kind of in the late teens. We were selling out of the offices just before COVID, when obviously the office sector took a bit of a hit.
We crystallized lots of profits on industrials at the top of the market, and then we've been recycling those lower-yielding industrial sales into higher-yielding retail purchases more recently. In terms of benefits of diversification, I've touched on this already. You know, at COVID, we were underweight in retail, we were overweight in industrial, and more recently, when the office sector has had a tough time as a result of the return to the office in the post-COVID era, we've been underweight in offices. I think finally, what is kind of underpinning this total performance is alternative uses. As Laura said, we are value investors, so when we're buying assets, we're always looking at vacant possession values and alternative use angles.
I think my final point on this, you know, it's all very well and good, buying the right assets and asset managing, but it's, you know, important to make the right decision when to sell assets and to cash in your chips and crystallize those profits to get that total return. This chart you've seen on many times before, if you've been joining these presentations over the years. We haven't included the very small Hitchin sale in this one. As I said, it was a small office which sat behind the main sort of retail thoroughfare in Hitchin. But as you can see, a 38% average sales purchase price premium, a statistic that we're very proud of.
As I said, we've been selling out of low-yielding assets more recently, mainly in the shed sector, and reinvesting into higher yielding assets, in the leisure and retail sectors. Handing back to Laura to talk about the investment opportunity. Thank you.
Thanks, Henry. So, we believe that the current property investment market represents a very strong buying opportunity for our company. And this slide really sets out the backdrop for why we think that is. So what we're showing you here is average commercial property values over the last 20 or so years. And what you can see is that, since late 2022, when the country experienced the Liz Truss mini budget, as part of her premiership, commercial property values fell significantly around 22% on average at that time, and they haven't recovered since. Now, the main reason for that is, of course, because interest rates have been very high for that period.
But another reason is that the commercial property investment market has been seeing very low volumes during that timeframe. So really what we're saying is that average commercial property values at their lowest point now, really since AEW's IPO, which is marked on the center of the chart here. Now, the time now, the opportunities that we see in our pipeline represent the strongest buying opportunity from a capital value and prospective capital value growth opportunity that we have seen. Now we don't expect this position to persist into the long run. Of course, we have seen interest rates start to track down.
We see signs that the commercial property investment market is starting to return to normal, but when we look at our pipeline, this very strong opportunity set still persists, and we would like to try and find some ways to take advantage of that. Which as Henry has partly touched on there, is sort of why from time to time, you will see us reach the end of an asset's business plan, and where we feel that the income and capital value of that asset has been maximized, we will recycle that into another value opportunity where we can enact our strategy. And what I'm showing you on the next slide here is really just the inverse of that.
Of course, if capital values are at their lowest, then it may, it sort of goes hand in hand with that, that the yields that we can achieve from these properties are at their highest. As we've set out to you with this strategy, we are looking to buy low capital values per sq ft and high yielding assets. So really, our pipeline today does absolutely represent a very strong set for what we are looking for, and we find our pipeline currently to offer many interesting high-yielding opportunities. Now, just a bit more detail on that really, as to the particular sectors where we're seeing those opportunities. Our pipeline as a whole is yielding on average close to 9%, which looks to be very attractive for our strategy.
But where are we finding that across the sectors? Now, if you follow our company, you will have noticed that during the course of last year, we made two acquisitions, one in the high street sector and one in the leisure sector. Those sectors are still very much where we are seeing a strong opportunity set for AEW. We are finding well-located, high-yielding opportunities, and also seeing that those sectors are, to a certain extent, unloved by other institutional investors. That always represents a time of opportunity for us, because where other investors are viewing a whole sector quite negatively, we can look within that sector to cherry-pick the opportunities that we think are attractive and represent sustainable income opportunities for an advantageous price.
As value investors, this is absolutely what we're looking for. We believe that some investors are being a bit too negative on the outlook, occupational outlook for some of these assets. Now, of course, these sectors are facing a number of headwinds, so we have to be very selective about not only the location, but how those tenants are trading as well. And that is what we have done in buying in these sectors over recent years. And we will continue to do so with opportunities that we see here as well. Turning to the industrial sector, this is one that we feel very positive about as well. Personally, I would feel pretty positive about the outlook for almost the entirety of the industrial sector.
But of course, this is a sector that is being chased quite strongly by a significant amount of other capital as well. It's certainly the sector in which most capital that's in the commercial property investment market is currently looking. So there's much more competition here, so we have to be more selective about the types of assets that we're buying. We won't find the high yields that we're looking for at the prime end, and also that capital is chasing multi-let estates as well. So we see a lot of opportunity in single-let industrials, and we still see opportunity there in our pipeline as well.
You know, you would see from some of our recent announcement, announcements, and if you follow our company, would have heard Henry talk about some really quite significant wins that he's had in recent weeks and months with increasing rental values on some of our single-let industrials. So we are more than happy to buy those assets because we see an income advantage in the yield on day one, but also because we know from examples in our portfolio, that we can drive the rental values going forward there as well. Just turning to the office sector, as I've said before, this is our smallest sector exposure at the moment. And it's a sector which, of course, has been through quite a tumultuous occupational time over recent years following the pandemic.
Personally, I absolutely believe in the office sector in big city center locations, where there's a lot of surrounding amenity and where the buildings offer a sort of top-level ESG credentials as well. But really, if we look at the office stock within the U.K., that's the part of that sector that offers those very strong credentials really represents quite a small part of that overall market. And there are quite a lot of office opportunities out there that would concern me for their lack of amenity or weaker location and also would require a significant amount of capital expenditure going forward. So while I find it a very interesting sector, I don't think it would ever form a very significant part of this strategy.
Firstly, because we are looking to distribute a high level of income, and offices are rather intensive in terms of their life cycle and the capital expenditure that they require. So we may selectively find some strong buying opportunities here, but I think it's less likely that we are likely to build up a large sector exposure within offices. Turning lastly to retail warehousing, also a sector that I like. But again, there is quite a lot of capital chasing this sector at the moment as well. So whilst we might selectively see opportunities, I would imagine that we are most likely to be net sellers in retail warehousing.
Perhaps as demonstrated by our most recent large sale of an asset, going back to November 2024 now, when we sold out of our retail warehousing park in Coventry, for a significant capital profit. We may look to do that where we can maximize the capital performance of some of our other retail warehousing assets in the portfolio as well. So I've kind of alluded to a couple of asset management wins that we've had in the portfolio recently there, but I'll hand back to Henry, who can talk about that in a bit more detail. Thanks.
Thanks, Laura. So yeah, this, this slide really is just a kind of summary of what myself and the asset management team at AEW are doing as a means of adding value. I mean, what we're really trying to do is grow income streams, lengthen and improve tenant leases, add value through the planning system, whether that be a change of use or we're actually getting planning for something else with regards to the existing use. Refurbish properties where required. That doesn't typically mean offices. You could be refurbishing industrials, stripping out retail units to as shells to then let to new tenants. And as a part of that process, we tend to be improving ESG credentials, and I see that there's a pre-submitted question on that, which I'll come on to in due course.
Now, we're delivering this sort of value add through new lettings, lease renewals, lease regears. If you don't know what that is, that is when you will be extending a lease, or surrendering a lease and doing a new lease sort of halfway through a term because you feel that there's a benefit to obviously to ourselves and the value, and obviously, a tenant would be willing to do that as well. Rent reviews, we've had some recently, some really good wins, in the industrial sector, in particular with regards to rent reviews. We reported a very significant increase, at Rom in Sheffield last quarter. Lease surrenders as well, and there are instances where tenants would like to leave, early, and in return are prepared to pay you a large capital sum.
We don't mind that because it actually reduces our void period and enables us to sort of get on with some asset management ahead of time. Slightly more sort of niche asset management opportunities. You have dilapidation settlements. We've just reported GBP 125 thousand dilapidation receipt from Sports Direct at Barnstaple this quarter. Maybe taking a lease outside the Landlord and Tenant Act that means that as a landlord, you hold more cards on expiry because the tenant doesn't have the right to renew, so therefore, you can be a little bit more aggressive in your asset management angles. A case of us being very successful with that historically was at Corby, where the tenant had a lease outside the Act.
So essentially, it meant that we could change their locks on the last day of their lease, so we could really negotiate hard on the lease renewal. And actually, it turns out we sold that asset to an owner-occupier client . They were obviously willing to buy it because they knew they could get the asset for themselves without having to go down some more, sort of painful, sort of procedural L&T steps. And we also looked to put some break options in or look to use break options as a means of sort of adding value and creating a point in time where we can negotiate with the tenant to change things in the lease. So I mean, the strategy, sort of in a nutshell, is kind of identifying assets in our pipeline.
We then very much sit down, strategize, have an asset management plan, so it means that we can sort of hit the ground running when we buy assets. We're growing income, we're adding value through lengthening leases or through the planning system, and then, as Laura said, we're, you know, making the decision to sell these assets at the right time and crystallizing these profits, and then recycling them into more yield-y assets. So this is Barnstaple Retail Park, where we've had a number of asset management wins recently. Just to recap, we bought this back in June 2018 for GBP 6.8 million, 133 pounds per sq ft, throwing off an 8.5% net initial yield at the time of purchase.
So it's a nice income there, and if you compare that price per sq ft to what it would cost to build this unit, it is very favorable. It would probably cost more to build that. I'd probably say around GBP 150/sq ft to build these units, and obviously, that's excluding the value of the land. It was fully let, had a nice WAULT of 8.6 years, attractive yield, a good site, and a low site coverage. So retail warehousing tends to have a low site coverage, which means that there can be site intensification. So that could potentially be a drive-through coffee restaurant here, for example. It was all. You know, it does benefit you in terms of alternative uses.
Anyway, in terms of what we've done more recently, in terms of the asset management side of things, we did a new 15-year lease to Farmfoods at a rent of GBP 125,000 a year. We reported that, several quarters ago. In doing that letting, we, refurbished the unit, and we had the dilapidation receipts from Sports Direct, having obviously proved that loss by them spending that money on that unit. Last quarter, we did a letting to Wren, at GBP 98,500 a year. And then this quarter, we've had a very good asset management win. B&Q had about seven years left on their lease. We engaged with them.
We had a little bit of competitive tension here because we had another tenant who had expressed interest in an overriding lease, which is a bit of a technical property term, but essentially, they were prepared to take a lease longer than B&Q's, paying us a sort of a profit rent, which would have enabled them to get owner-occupier possession at the expiry of B&Q's lease. We used that as leverage on B&Q to regain the lease, add an additional 7.5 years of term, and to move the rent on. So a really good asset management win, and as you can see, we moved the valuation on by GBP 900,000, representing a 12% increase this quarter. A great asset management win to report this quarter.
This is the Hitchin asset that we bought about, well, roughly this time last year. I think it was about March time in 2025. We are including this in this presentation because, as Laura said, we have recently sold off a small office which sits behind the main retail component of this asset, which sits on Bancroft, which is the prime retail area in Hitchin, a very affluent commuter town, about 25 minutes away on the train north of London. So we bought this asset, as I said, back in March 2024, GBP 10 million, a low capital per sq ft of GBP 230 a sq ft, so relatively cheap, off an 8.3% net initial yield. Now, the office had vacancy.
We did have a vendor guarantee, but that was gonna expire in a couple of months' time. So we've now sold off that office, and it has boosted the net running yield to 8.7%. So exactly what we want in terms of income and a nice capital profit for the company. Thank you very much. Handing back to Laura to conclude the presentation.
Thanks, Henry, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Yeah, so hopefully it's clear that we are feeling very positive about the outlook for our current portfolio and its performance, but also for the investment pipeline and the assets that we are able to acquire at the moment. And hopefully, our strong 10-year track record gives confidence to investors that we are able to maximize those values, maximize that income stream, and deliver some strong performance through the company's strategy as well. I just add that we are, I guess, because of the very strong pipeline that we see, and I mentioned that we are able to access that as we recycle assets. But of course, that only really creates a fairly limited appetite for reinvestment within the company.
We are working with our board to look at ways in which we can grow the equity base of our company. This is something that we have been focusing on for quite some time, and we will very much continue to do so during the course of this year. Really just so that we can provide to investors more liquidity in our shares, it reduces the cost base of the company as we grow. So it benefits to investors and also so that we can access some of that strong pipeline as well. So that is a very clear focus that we have with our board at the moment. Now, just I can see that we've had quite a few questions submitted, thank you very much for those during the presentation.
I'll just pick up one of these first of all, and I can see quite a few of you asking a question certainly of this nature, but just to pick up one of them. I'm asking if we have any plans to increase the dividend payment from the company at the moment? So the answer to that question is that we don't have any live plans at the moment. But of course, as I think one of you has pointed out in asking this question, that as a REIT, we are required to distribute 90% of our income stream to our investors. So, if we reach the position where we in distributing that amount, that would see us exceeding the GBP 0.02, then of course, we are required by regulation to do that.
And of course, our board and ourselves would see that as a, a very successful position to be in. So we would welcome that, if we think that that is in the best interest of the company, and if we can maximize the earnings to that stage, which, of course, we would like to work towards in the long run, but we don't have any plans to do that as at today. Henry, do you want to pick up this question on the,
Yeah-
Environmental?
So, yes, we've got a question here saying: What are you doing to make your portfolio more environmentally sustainable? So as I said earlier on, we have a relatively low WAULT to expiry of around five years. Now, that really benefits us, us in terms of environmental performance, because obviously it is a point in time where we can look to engage with our tenants. I'm sure most of you are aware of the minimum energy efficiency standards in the U.K., which is looking to improve EPCs to Cs by 2027 and Bs by 2029, albeit those time frames are being reviewed.
So yeah, at the point of where we are looking to renew leases or we take space back, and bearing in mind our vacancy yo-yo between sort of 5% and 10%, we will be looking to improve those EPC ratings. So I think that's the sort of lowest hanging fruit, the most kind of obvious asset management angle. With regards to the assets that we are not single lets or on full repairing and insuring leases where we have control, so where there are service charges, for example, which is typically more like offices and multi-lets, retail warehousing parks or industrials. We can improve the environmental performance of those assets.
We have asset sustainability plans for all of our assets, and we can improve biodiversity through landscaping and trying to promote a sort of a wider variety of flora and fauna. We also are looking at, like, EV charging and PV. So it's very much a part of what the asset managers do as their day jobs.
Thanks, Henry. I'm just gonna pick up a question... Oh, I can't find it now, but I read it a minute ago. It's here somewhere. Oh, from Crispy here, who's very eagle-eyed and noticed that in the RNS that we put out yesterday, we stated that the term of our debt facility was July 2027, whereas we had previously stated that it was May 2027. Yes, just to clarify, that isn't as a result of any changes in our debt facility that we've had now for about 4 years. That is really just due to a clarification between us and our lender in when that term was ending. So, no, there's been no changes in the facility. And I can see other people asking some questions about that facility.
So that facility, as we've just said, expires in July 2027. And we have an in-house debt team here at AEW who work not only on AEW UK REIT, but other strategies that we run here as well, or certainly are run by colleagues. Henry and I, of course, work exclusively on AEWU. Now, the reason why I'm mentioning that is because it means that that debt team here know a variety of lenders across the market and are really always in touch with lenders, sourcing debt. And for us, that's very advantageous because it means that they have strong relationships.
They very much have their finger on the pulse in terms of where terms can be agreed in the most favorable fashion for our company, and of course, that relates to pricing as well. So we are already working with that team, and having them report back to our board very frequently in terms of that refinancing that we have coming up. And we feel very positive about the kind of terms and also the pricing that we'll be able to secure going forward. Now we're hopeful that, between now and when we have to sign something there, the interest rates will continue to track down. And fingers very much crossed for that.
But fair to say that as we sit here today, the kind of pricing that's on offer for us today in order to renew that facility, doesn't look concerning, and I don't think would be negatively impactful on our dividend going forward. So, a very positive outlook on that front. I'm just going to pick up on another range of questions that quite a few of you have put forward. So I talked about the company having a objective for growth, a very strong objective to growth, and whether or not that sees us looking at M&A opportunities. Yes, it absolutely does. And we have really, yeah, done a lot of work on that, over the past couple of years, but particularly, last year and at the current time as well.
So we are very much assessing opportunities. And if we believe that they are in the best interest of shareholders, then we will look to pursue them. Absolutely. Someone else just asking the question about the rating of our shares versus NAV and relative to our peers. Now, AEW shares, of course, have been trading at the narrowest discount, I believe, across that peer group of diversified UK REITs. And of course, we've seen during Q4 2024, trading at a premium occasionally. And somebody's asking: Why is that? I mean, I'd like to think that that is a reflection of the fact that we pay the highest dividend that we have had the highest level of total return.
I would like to think that our strategy is therefore viewed as being one of the most successful amongst those peers, and having delivered the strongest return. So for me, that is really why we have achieved the highest rating in our shares.
There's a few questions I can pick up here. So we've got one from Dan C saying: Please, can you comment on the quality of your tenants and whether any of them are struggling with rent payments? We alluded to this in the announcement, that actually, we've got a very strong tenant base at the moment. It's obviously quite early in the quarter, and we roughly have about sort of 95% of our tenants have paid their quarterly rents, and obviously, some of our tenants are on monthly rents as well. So, that figure is slightly sort of inflated because of that. But I would say that at this point in time, rent collection is probably as good as it has been for a number of years, so that's not something that concerns me.
I think it's you know, we're not seeing the same level of restructures and CVAs and administrations that we have seen, particularly in the retail sector. Obviously, the retail sector's been through a very tough time and very much through the eye of the storm now. So I think those retailers that have survived, they, you know, they've survived a really challenging period. You know, there's been a lot written recently about the renaissance of the high street. I think as long as you have kind of the best-located high street retail assets, I think it's a pretty safe place to be. Yeah, the sort of the retail life has definitely got a bit of, bit of life in it at the moment.
Another question here, and we mentioned that our industrial assets in Basildon had fallen in value this quarter because one of the two tenants there had left. We have taken the decision to go for planning to redevelop this property. The asset has kind of been, you know, well let since we bought it back in 2017 to two main tenants, and we've seen some nice rental growth. However, kind of it is felt that the space in its existing configuration is a little bit economically obsolete, and there are sort of ERVs that we could hit on a new build, about GBP 15 a sq ft, which is almost twice as much as what the current passing rents are.
We obviously saw a fall in value, because the existing units are around 70,000 sq ft. With the industrial market today, occupier requirements are sort of very specific, and it's essential to have a 40-meter yard. So in doing that, we've had to reduce the floor footprint by about 10,000 sq ft. And you will appreciate that build costs have increased quite significantly over the last 5 years. I think sort of back pre-COVID, you could build a small industrial warehouse, about 60,000 sq ft for about GBP 80 a sq ft. Whereas now those costs are sort of about GBP 130 a sq ft, so have increased quite significantly.
So unfortunately, those higher build costs, the smaller footprint, and with exit yields being softer than they were kind of at the peak of the industrial market a couple of years ago, prior to this Truss budget, has just meant that, residual land values for industrials and all properties actually, are not as strong as they were historically. Another question here on the nightclub in Cardiff, how's it trading? Yeah, a number of quarters ago, we assigned the lease to a NewCo , Neos 13, and we rebased the rent to GBP 150,000 a year with a turnover rent. And you'll have seen in this recent announcement that we have just built up GBP 50,000 of additional rent.
It's good to see that we're getting that additional rent, and the nightclub, you know, is at a new stage, and it's trading well. Obviously, you will all appreciate that, Cardiff is a strong university city, and we have the Six Nations just around the corner, and that is the time when this nightclub trades its strongest. Hopefully some good performance going into 2026.
That's great, Henry. Laura, if I may just jump back in there, and thank you for addressing those questions for investors today. Of course, the company can have your questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses on the Investor Meet Company platform. But Laura, before I redirect investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to the company, could I please ask you for a few closing comments?
Yeah. Thanks, all, for joining us today. It's been great to update you again. I'd just say if you're looking for information on the company in the meantime, please do go on our website. We display our full portfolio on the website. We also have these videos shown. We have a sort of range of contact details for the company and also our news flow as well, with all of the company's RNSs. We have also worked recently with Investor Meet Company to put out a series of short videos, just providing a bit more detail on our strategy, focusing in on that, and particularly asset management, and also some of the other opportunity areas, that we see in the portfolio.
So if you haven't seen those, please check those out as well. I believe they have been released over the course of January so far, so it should be available on the platform. But otherwise, thank you very much, and look forward to catching up again next quarter.
Fantastic. Thank you very much, Laura and Henry, for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback and so that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of AEW UK REIT plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.