Thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning for the Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust Interim Results webinar. My name's James Lowe. I look after sales for the Schroder Investment Trust business. I'm very pleased to be joined on the line this morning by two members of the team. We've got Jeff O'Dwyer, who's the fund manager of the trust, and Rick Murphy, who's the finance manager for the trust also. Just before we get into the presentation, a couple of bits of housekeeping from my side. If you'd like to ask the team a question, please do so. On the right of your screen, there should be a Q&A tab, and I'll ask them at the end of the presentation.
You can also download a copy of the presentation, I'm told, if you go onto the links on the right-hand side of your screen. You also have a link there to the website where we'll shortly have a full copy of the results that you can access. That's all from me. I'll see you for the Q&A, but with that, over to Jeff and Rick. Jeff?
Thanks, James. Yes, my name is Jeff O'Dwyer. I'm the fund manager, as James introduced. I'm joined by Rick Murphy, who's the fund manager. Good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning. It's the interim results that we're presenting on today for the Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust as a six-month period ending 31 March. Intention is I'll sort of run through an overview. I'll then hand over to Rick to sort of run through the financials. Then I'll sort of talk you through the portfolio, the strategy, and how we're sort of dealing with these sort of headwinds and risk that we're recently facing. Over the period, the portfolio has performed exceptionally well. We're really happy with the results.
NAV total return of 5.5%, driven largely by asset management and valuation growth across not only the industrial but also some of the select offices and the DIY asset that we have in the portfolio. NAV stands at just under EUR 200 million, EUR 199.1 million. Slight fall, mainly due to the first special dividend that we paid to unit holders at the start of the year, and that sort of offset that valuation growth that I touched on.
Looking forward, with these results, and given the sort of the resilience of the portfolio, the fact that we have no Eastern European exposure, the very strong sort of rent collection numbers which are at 100%, the strong balance sheet and really the income characteristics of the portfolio, it's given the board and management comfort to again announce the same quarterly dividend of EUR 0.0185 per share, together with the second special dividend that we also gave some guidance on over the last sort of 12 months that we would be returning some capital to unit holders on the back of that asset management and profit that we've made out of the Paris Boulogne-Billancourt refurbishment.
Really that's in total about EUR 13 million that we've delivered back to investors in terms of special dividends. We always said that we would share in that upside as a result of that business plan that we've delivered. I'll talk a bit more detail around that asset because it is a fantastic example and really the best example of our asset management expertise and how we can manage risk, how we can improve sustainability, and ultimately how we create shareholder value going forward. Obviously the focus now is to try and replace that lost income, and we've been looking at some new investments at the moment.
We've recently done a couple of transactions, one in Venray in the Netherlands and then we've signed and committed to a car showroom in Cannes, and I'll talk more detail on that particular asset later. Obviously, the company's in a very strong financial position where we have around EUR 50 million of capital, including some gearing, to redeploy, and that will help not only in terms of move the dividend cover back to 100%, but also help with that further diversification. Just thinking about sort of share price today and obviously we are trading at around a 20% discount. If you annualize that quarterly dividend that we've announced and have been paying for the last quarters, you're getting a 6%, roughly a 6% dividend yield.
That's not including the special dividends that I've touched on. We think that's highly attractive, particularly given the cities and the diversification that we have. You think about the cities that we're invested in, whether it be Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg, these are all sort of tier one cities and where we have sort of strong positions in those cities from a micro point of view. I guess the other point, and we've sort of been talking more around inflation and really one of the real benefits of European real estate investing is that our leases are annually indexed.
Again, that's a real positive that will start to come through with the income side, particularly as we start to face sort of stronger geopolitical and economic risks, as we go forward over the next sort of 12 months. Obviously the focus is really to try and add new investments. I touched on really trying to grow the income and generating investments in those sort of continued focus on growth cities and regions, which is the real main strategy of the trust, and obviously providing further diversification, and maintaining that attractive dividend cover from sustainable income. I'll hand over to Rick now to talk through the financials.
Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everybody. Looking at the financial highlights for the six-month interim periods and beginning first of all with the cash position, it's very pleasing to be able to say now that 31st March 2022, the fund had received just over three-quarters of the net EUR 100 million sale proceeds from the sale of Paris Boulogne-Billancourt, and it's that that's driven the approximate EUR 50 million of investment capacity available to the fund for future income-enhancing acquisitions across 2022 and into 2023. From a dividends paid perspective, EUR 0.0845 per share was paid out to investors over the six-month period. That includes a $0.0475 per share first special dividends off the back of that Paris BB forward sale and asset management success.
Together with 2.0 and 1.85 euro cents per share, interim dividends also paid to investors in the period. As Jeff has touched upon, again, very pleasing to say that 100% rent collection across the portfolio, excluding the Seville asset, and likewise, strong IFRS earnings of EUR 10.9 million. We can see in the brackets there that in the prior interim periods, there was a small loss. That was driven by the write-off of the Seville equity. All of that came through the fund's NAV in the prior years' interims, and now we can see us getting back to the strong IFRS earnings again.
From a performance perspective, NAV total return of 5.5% and 9.3% over the rolling twelve months and LTV net of cash of just 18%. Moving to the NAV movements slide. Here we can see the NAV bridge between the 199.5 as at the first of October 2021, and the closing NAV of 199.1. In euro cents per share terms, a movement of 149.2 down to 148.8, and percentage terms, a small fall of 0.3% in the NAV over the six-month period. Beginning with the unrealized gains in the top line, EUR 8.3 million were the unrealized gains across the six months.
We can see in the top line, that's predominantly driven by the German assets, so Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt, together in part with the French industrial and logistics assets in Plouharnel, Rumilly, and Nantes. In addition to that, there was small transaction costs and capital expenditure invested across the six months at EUR 0.2 million respectively. We've taken a further EUR 1.4 million of the Blumenberg Courts development profit. In the prior years, in year-end results, we've taken 25%, and these results we've taken a further 25%. 50% of that total available has now been recognized as the fund's NAV to date.
With regards to Seville, as mentioned, we've already written down all of the equity investments in the prior interim, so no movements with regards to that asset and the fund's NAV for this six months. EPRA earnings of EUR 2.5 million. Non-cash capital items of EUR 0.9 million. That's predominantly deferred tax off those strong valuation gains in particular in Germany. Dividends paid of EUR 11.3 million, so that special dividend paid at $0.0475 per share, together with two standard ordinary dividends of $0.0185 per share in the six months. Turning to the income statements. Here we can see on a like-for-like basis that EPRA earnings have fallen slightly.
EUR 2.8 million were the EPRA earnings for March 31, 2021, and EUR 2.5 million for March 31, 2022. The main movements here is that while rental income has gone up, partly due to acquisitions in Nantes and Venray II in the Netherlands, which has higher property expenses, in particular, historic service charge costs, which have run through the numbers this six-month period, which has led to dividend cover of 50% for the six months and 63% excluding exceptional items. As Jeff mentioned, as those Boulogne-Billancourt proceeds are reinvested, the intention is to get back to full dividend coverage in 2023. Then just on the debts financing side.
We can see on the top line LTV net of cash of 18%, 28% gross of cash, so very healthy. In the table on the right-hand side in those far two columns, we can see that the covenant headroom, both with regard to LTV and ICR, is strong for all loans. Six of those seven loans bar Seville. The Seville loan has been in breach and in cash trap now for quite some time. That loan is non-recourse to the group and as mentioned, that investment's already fully written down to nil. No further impacts to future NAV.
Just finally on this slide, with regards to refinancings, in 2023, we can see on the bottom line that the first refinancing maturity date is the Rumilly loan. This is actually our smallest loan in the portfolio at EUR 3.7 million, and that's matures in April 2023. Then the next loan is the Hamburg/Stuttgart one, which is June 2023, so just over a year's time. It's pleasing to say that very good progress has already been made with different lenders with regards to refinancing that loan, intended over this summer.
Just on the dividend, I won't go into too much detail on this slide. It's fairly self-explanatory. I guess one of the real positives has been we're pretty quick to reinstate the dividend as we went through the pandemic, and I think investors were highly appreciative of that. I guess the other big advantage, and this is one of the nuances of real estate, is that where you are making a decent profit, an extraordinary profit, you do have that capacity to distribute that as a special dividend. We have taken the opportunity to do that, both in terms of paying that first special dividend in January and then announcing the second today. Really the focus now shifts to, well, how do we move that dividend cover up to 100%?
As Rick touched on before, we're at early sixties. We've still got some capital to redeploy, and really the direction of the dividend cover getting back to 100% is going to be towards the end of 2023 as we redeploy that capital and as we also lease some of the vacancy that we have in the portfolio, and I'll touch on that in a bit more detail in a minute. Just in terms of discrete performance, and you can sort of take this away and read on your own, but I guess a couple of the key points out of this is really how the share price has improved, pretty substantially, over the year. Obviously, a year ago, there was still concerns around sort of diversified vehicles and really being out of favor.
I think that's sort of changed to a degree. We did see some much stronger sort of share price growth up until a couple of months ago where we did close that discount to around 7 or 8%. That's widened a little bit now, obviously, with these geopolitical risks and inflation concerns and sort of general recession question marks. We still have delivered some pretty strong returns to shareholders. If you look at sort of NAV total return over the last couple of years been highly positive. On a three-year basis, we're at certainly around a sort of high single digit, which for a diversified vehicle has been very attractive.
Just thinking through the strategy, not a lot has changed. Really we've centered the strategy along a number of sort of key themes that we've sort of outlined here. Obviously, the first is being diversified. We're gonna remain centered on having a diversified portfolio. Really the key here is using our local expertise that we have on the ground in the markets. Not only can they help sort of identify sort of growth cities and regions, but also they're identifying submarkets in those cities that will benefit from transport infrastructure changes that are in supply constrained areas where there's competing demands for users and fundamentally buying buildings that are at least of affordable and sustainable rents.
You'll get that sense as I talk through the portfolio later, and that's gonna set us up very well as we deal with some of these headwinds, particularly the affordability that we're coming off. We're not the buyer of the best asset in on the best street, but we're buying fundamentally good accommodation in accessible locations in strong cities. This real strategy has been a key part of how we've been able to deliver that double-digit real estate profile over the last three years on average. Really strong success that we have shown there. Really key focus now is actually having that local team, and in particular, that multi-sector expertise is very important.
I had previously touched on with the market, the acquisition that Schroders plc made in the Netherlands, where we bought a very strong investment management team, probably a best in class investment management team through a company called Cairn Real Estate. That's now been rebranded Schroders, and that gives us fantastic exposure to that market, which adds to the existing exposure that we had in France and Germany. Those three markets, very much key markets, but for the European REIT going forward. Obviously, the second point is really around ESG and what we're doing across the portfolio, not only the criteria, but the certifications, working with our tenants around their understanding and what they can do.
We've also been investing in certain sort of improving some of the sort of plant equipment in some of the assets. Looking particularly in Germany, having 100% renewable energy adopted there and starting to use a lot more sort of smart meters across the portfolio so as we can actually monitor and understand where we can sort of control and improve sort of electricity and gas. Obviously working towards trying to improve our ratings at the moment. We are sort of three Green Star rating from a GRESB point of view.
We're looking to the Trust in accordance with sort of SFDR rules, and obviously starting to review every asset from a net zero carbon perspective and what we need to do to try and keep these and improve the carbon output for each asset. The best example of what I often use here is really the asset that we have in Paris, where we have taken what was a Grade C, fairly tired building. By investing in that, we've turned that into a Grade A BREEAM-rated excellent building. On the back of that, we had the tenant commit to a long-term lease. We moved the rents accordingly to cater for that investment. We've also seen on the investment side a very.
profit for the trust and allowed us to make that distribution that we've touched on. In terms of third sort of focus is really on the operational mindset and really hospitality. Obviously, continuing to get closer to our tenants, and the pandemic has driven that, and really understanding the businesses and collaborating on data on operational performance and flexibility and ways that we can achieve sort of collectively sustainability objectives. Fourthly, obviously, we're in a pretty strong position from a balance sheet point of view. That sale allowed us to now look at sort of tinkering the portfolio and looking to redeploy that capital out of the sale. Looking at some slightly smaller lot sizes to improve that diversification.
We've recently sort of committed to the car showroom in Cannes. I'll talk a bit more detail. Again, slightly alternative and giving us a bit more diversification. Obviously, that strong income profile is what's key and really goes to moving that dividend cover that I touched on before. Then finally, just really we'll continue to run the vehicle with a fairly modest LTV and strong balance sheet. We won't be moving. Obviously, we have 28%, but we won't be moving that capacity. As I said, really having that, what has been a fairly quickly changing market. We think there will be better buying opportunities and hopefully we can capitalize on any discount and a very strong income focus and the diversification that we have.
We set our stall out to focus on France and Germany, where we have our strongest teams on the ground. Our DIY grocery exposure at around 17%. Then our logistics industrial exposure are at around a quarter of the portfolio, and the rest is in cash and the alternative asset that we have in the Netherlands with the mixed-use data center. Unexpired lease profile of around five years, and I think that's becoming increasingly of value. Obviously, income being and will continue to be a stronger part of the total return going forward.
You can also sort of see here the valuation growth, and success that we've had over the six months here and not just focused on industrial, but some of those select offices, as we've been able to lease some of this, particularly in Hamburg, and that's common. Total return, I think I've touched on this and just really how we have sort of delivered at the asset level. I think moving forward, the real key point here is that that income will be a stronger proportion of total return and probably will represent the same capital growth that we have seen over the next few years, just given those headwinds that we're talking through at the moment.
Certainly income will represent a stronger portion. Again, a slide that you may have seen in the past just to sort of highlight that it's not just industrial that have delivered in terms of returns over the period. Again. Got two examples here where we've delivered sort of high single-digit returns over that six-month period and certainly teen returns over on average on a three-year basis. More recent sort of headwinds that are least affected by affordable rents, I think is a key part for success on offices. Obviously in the industrial side, we've seen yields sort of being pushed down. We've definitely seen a floor in terms of where yields have got to.
Now it's more about rental growth for logistics. And then on the retail side, we've got a fantastic success here, which for me, I've always sort of said this is probably one of the best assets in the portfolio, where really we're sitting on four hectares of land in a growing part of Berlin. We'll continue to see sort of good success here. Although this sort of delivers a very 100% rent collection and, early part of the pandemic, we were around 95. I think for a diversified vehicle, I don't know of any other trust out there that has delivered such strong rent collection numbers. We've got no assistance being given to any of our occupiers at the moment.
A really strong position that we're in and we're achieving collecting rents in accordance with our contracts. Really positive result to be presenting on. Just to sort of finalize in talking about sort of Boulogne-Billancourt, and this is the best example of asset management that we can do. Really is a big sort of tick and plus to our team on the ground. We delivered this not only in terms of the construction contract, but also the new lease and planning when the pandemic just started to kick off. Really good example of how we can improve the sustainability and the profile and really the certification of this.
As I touched on before, taking a Grade C fairly tight building and turning it into a Grade A BREEAM-rated excellent building. It is their headquarters location. It's a publicly listed company called ALTEN. On the back of that, we moved the rents and therefore we also felt it was the right time to enter into a forward sale, and that helped us fund the redevelopment as well. We've now concluded the work on that, and we've done this in accordance with program. Particularly given some of the headwinds that the team's been dealing with, and that's what's allowed us to share that with unit holders through these special dividends that Rick has touched on earlier.
Going forward, where do we see some growth with some office building that we have in Saint-Cloud. Opportunity there to deliver around sort of EUR 500,000 in income. We're working with a couple of tenants at the moment about potentially expanding. Also working with a great offer, not only for what we own in this broader complex, but also for the overall condominium that is the refurbishment there which we've now done and handed over. Medium-term is slightly tinkering of the Frankfurt asset and looking to expand the Lidl, really strong retail asset in a very strong urban location in Frankfurt.
Again, we're having really positive dialogue with Lidl, a couple of other sort of smaller tenants there and about moving that tenancy mix around. Longer term, I touched on earlier about well, how do we look at sort of submarkets that will benefit from transport infrastructure changes. There's a couple of examples here. One particularly in Stuttgart, where we are located very near the main train station, which is undergoing significant but also to greater Germany and beyond. Equally, in Saint-Cloud, there's a new station, so we expect to see good rental growth on the back of that.
Then also the data center that we have in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, discussions with KPN, really the focus here is to then sort of improve the profile of that. It is an asset that is relatively tired, would need some investment, and obviously investment and improve the sustainability. We would only do that if we can organize a regear. For me, it's sort of a mini Boulogne-Billancourt, obviously at a smaller scale. But that's sort of part of the strategy. We've still got sort of circa four years left on that lease, a little bit of time. That's the discussion at the moment. Longer term is around that sort of Hallberg, Berlin asset that I touched on before.
On the bottom right, you can see there surrounding the asset is sort of mixed density residential and offices. Really strong play here about how we can use that site to a higher and better use. Just on the inflationary side, I think obviously we're all concerned about what's happening and how quickly this has moved. We are starting to see obviously rates increasing on the back of this. One of the real positives about European leases is that we have annual indexation clauses, so we are capturing this growth and have some element of hedge on the income side. You can see here that different sort of countries are moving in different levels.
We do foresee that actually inflation returning sort of post 2024 back to around that sort of 2% level. I think the other sort of key point here is a lot of our leases, or most of our leases, are leased on affordable rents. We're not, when we're looking to implement this indexation, sort of moving the needle too much in terms of value from an income point of view for our occupiers. Just to sort of talk through on how we're sort of looking at new investments.
We issued an announcement a couple of months ago around committing to an exciting car showroom in Cannes, a very strong growth region, a very wealthy part to replicate. It's the main arterial road that leads from the motorway down to Cannes. There's an agglomeration of car showrooms of around 22. We've got the best site. It's one of the things we very quickly identified. We've got about 200 meters of frontage to that main arterial road. It's leased to Fiat. We sit next door to Lamborghini and Ferrari. We're on relatively modest rents here as well, so we bought this out of necessity out of a view that suggests that the rents, there's a bit of reversionary in this to take it to around EUR 6.4.
This is the type of investment, obviously at around, and we'll be looking to close on this deal in the next couple of weeks. Longer term, happy to take the income, but actually longer term, thinking about, well, what is the alternate use to this? Surrounding us, behind us, this site is medium density resi last mile distribution because it is sort of in its proximity to the main arterial road and the motorway, and obviously a very densely populated part of Cannes as well.
Further diversify and obviously move that dividend cover back to that 100% that I touched on, updated in terms of forecast, but obviously we are and it's clear that we're operating in a very different environment to where we were six months ago, I think the main risks were probably centered on COVID and ESG. Obviously those two risks are still there, but we're now sort of facing not only sort of, I guess, war in sort of Russia, Ukraine, but there's sort of five or six risks that we're all sort of dealing with and really the ultimate impact on what's happening on the interest rate side as well, which I think is very, very clear. There's a lot happening.
I think we are positioned to deal with those risks. Yes, I think and I touched on earlier that we've seen in the past, it's unlikely that we'll see that. I think we will see sort of growth on the income side, but we may see yields start to move out a little bit, and hence income becoming a much stronger part of that total return story. Just on the office side, I think one of the big benefits of Europe is that the office markets were in a healthy position. We didn't see that oversupply. Banks were very prudent in terms of not lending on speculative developments. I think that's been very helpful for where we sit today, and vacancy rates being much more in check.
Actually the next slide sort of covers that a little bit more detail about where we are located. If you think about our two German assets, one is in the city sort of part of Hamburg. This is an area that has held up exceptionally well during the pandemic, and vacancy rates have actually fallen. This is the asset that we have here, really interesting story, where leading into the pandemic, we had five vacant office floors. We leased every one of those floors during the pandemic, and really the main sort of focus of that or benefit of that has been that we are in an affordable and accessible location.
We're leased off of sort of rents here of around EUR 12-14, which relative to where prime rents are in that city sort of sub-market at low 20s and prime rents in the city center, which is one stop away at sort of low 30s. You can see that occupiers like to be here because it is accessible and have sort of more back office. It's very well diversified. We've got about six tenants in there now. A really strong story, and again, goes to the heart of that affordability comment that I made earlier on. Same within Stuttgart. Again, government is the main tenant in this building, leased off around sort of EUR 14 per sq m per month. Again, rents in the city center are nearly double that.
again, an area where we're gonna benefit from transport infrastructure improvements. Stuttgart has the lowest level of vacancy of any city across Europe, so a really strong position and happy to have this exposure that we have here. I see that rental growth coming forward and really delivering some strong returns as over the next few years.
Then in Paris, yes, vacancy rates have increased a little bit here, but we're coming off again, rents that are a substantial discount to where sort of prime rents are not only in the sub-market we're in, which is in the southern bend, but also relative to the city center, where rents are at sort of EUR 900 a meter and we're coming from rents of sort of low EUR 200. But much more affordable and again, thinking through that indexation, once you're applying, whether it be sort of 5, 6, 7% inflation, it's a bit more palatable for occupiers, coming off rents at EUR 200 rather than coming off rents of EUR 900.
Much more affordable to deal with than that sort of indexation that will come through. Just in summary, it's a very unique proposition. We're the only listed vehicle in the UK and South Africa that delivers Western European exposure on a diversified basis. I think we've done exceptionally well with the portfolio that we have put together. Thinking through sort of that dividend and, if you annualize that current quarterly dividend of current share price today, you're getting around a 6% dividend yield, and that's without those special dividends that I touched on and being further enhanced.
We've got significant firepower to move forward and try and add further diversification and move that dividend cover back to 100%. Obviously, we're in and have been and haven't deviated away from that strategy of being in the fastest-growing cities and regions. We're pleased to say that 100% of the portfolio continues to remain in higher growth regions. We're on track in terms of successfully delivering on that asset management, whether it be Boulogne-Billancourt, whether it be in terms of, say, the Frankfurt investment or trying to lease some of the vacant space or discussions with some of the key tenants that we have.
Having a very strong team on the ground that I touched on earlier in terms of introducing the Cairn team in the Netherlands to see much stronger deal flow through them and an ability to manage the Dutch portfolio in a much stronger way, having that multi-sector expertise through that team. They also have that sort of hospitality operational mindset as well and being very close to our tenants. That's how we see we can outperform and drive income and maintain our tenants. I think that's becoming key as well. Once you have a tenant, trying to work with them about making sure that they stay and don't give them the opportunity to move.
I think we're well positioned to deal with the headwinds that we're facing at the moment, and really income is key. I think we're sort of overall very pleased with what we have with the portfolio and how we can deliver on returns going forward. I'll stop there. Happy to answer any questions if there's any through James.
Yeah. Thanks, Jeff, and thanks, Rick. Thank you everyone for sending in your questions. If you do have another question that comes to mind as we're going through this, then do send it in. Jeff, you've just spoken there quite a lot around sort of speaking to your tenants in a lot of detail. One of the questions that's come through has been, how are tenants feeling on the ground and what is their propensity to withstand the current economic pressure that we're seeing and also these inflation increases we're gonna see coming through the leases?
Yeah, look, I think in terms of the portfolio, over the last few months, we've had no requests from tenants for assistance. I think early pandemic, we had a bit of sort of help, or we gave a bit of help to a couple of tenants who very quickly repaid that rent. Obviously, I'm not talking about Metromar, which is a very different proposition being a secondary shopping center. This, in terms of looking at the rest of the portfolio across the offices, the logistics, the light industrial, the DIY, and the grocery, we are at 100% rent collection, and we've had no requests for assistance. If you think about the underlying occupiers, it's very strong.
I mean, we've got a cross-section of publicly listed companies, whether that be with KPN or Hornbach. We've got government exposure. We've got some strong logistics and industrial companies as well. We've got some pharmaceutical, some insurance. These are all sectors that have corporately performed very well. And again, we're coming off low rents, so I'm not expecting any of our tenants to sort of put their hand up and say, "Well, look, we don't have the capacity to pay for with this indexation that we start to move forward.
Just as a follow-up question to that. Another question just come through around if you are looking at lease renewals, do you think there'll be downward pressure there on sort of rental values with the deteriorating economic conditions we're seeing?
I don't necessarily believe that's the case. It sort of comes back to where we're located as well. If you think about, we are in supply constrained areas, that's what's helping keeping up the ERV. Even though we've got a situation where probably more where the consumers are under a bit more pressure and those sort of occupiers that are more consumer-led, really it's gonna be driven by sort of market rent. As I've touched on before, from an office point of view, some of those submarkets have record low levels of vacancy. On the logistics side, I mean, there is a bit of spare capacity. What we are seeing as well on the logistics side is that businesses are storing goods for a lot longer.
Although these logistics companies sort of run a pretty tight business in terms of margins, what they're sort of changing their business to actually storing goods for longer. Their actual clients are sort of a lot more sticky, so they have actually a stronger capacity to pay as well. Again, coming back to this point, a lot of our leases on the logistics side are leased at modest rents. I use Venray as an example where we're leased at sort of low 40 EUR per meter per annum. Prime logistics rents in that area now are sort of 55 EUR. There's a significant discount, and at the end of the day, it's a watertight storage facility, and a number of their tenants sort of lock up their goods for some time.
There's not a lot of sort of change on their sort of underlying tenor or contracts that they have. I think we're pretty well placed in terms of being able to deliver on that existing rent and also some of that growth that I touched on, particularly in some of the submarkets where vacancy rates are at record low levels.
Thanks, Jeff. Just moving on to new investments now. There's been a couple of questions that come in around the future investment plans. I know you sort of went through in some detail during the presentation, but could you just give a bit more color on the types of investments that are coming across your desk? Also, again, sort of a question around the macro backdrop. Is that having an impact on the investment opportunities you're seeing currently and valuations?
Yeah, look, I think, and I think I've probably touched on this before when I've presented, and I certainly present to the board, that it's been frustrating that we haven't actually seen the level of deal flow. I mean, pricing has been pretty aggressive for the last 18 months, and we've been willing to sort of not participate. Yes, we see a lot of deals, but we're also conscious of what is sensible. We are investment managers rather than spending capital. I think sort of where we've now moved to actually having circa EUR 50 million to redeploy now, I do believe we're gonna see a lot more opportunity.
There's gonna be probably some of those existing owners that are looking to refinance loans that, say, at the end of their five-year term, they're gonna be facing sort of increase in interest rates, and they're gonna be facing probably a tightening of availability of debt for them. They're not gonna get the same level of LTV. I think with that, there may come certainly more, a lot of people, a lot of investors looking at sort of moving assets on. I think having that EUR 50 million that we've got, I do expect to see more capacity and more opportunity than what we have seen in the past.
I'm regularly dealing and working with our guys on the ground, whether it be in Germany, France or the Netherlands, and just starting to see a bit more deal flow, particularly in the Netherlands. I think that's been one of the big benefits about the Schroders plc buying that business that we have there and having circa 30 investment professionals on the ground. Being able to see and source product will be key for us in terms of deploying that EUR 50 million.
Thanks, Jeff. Just following on with a question on dividend cover. There's been a couple of these. Could you just provide a bit more information as to the pathway to that full coverage? I know you mentioned in the presentation it would be likely in 2023 that we'll achieve full cover. Can you just confirm that what someone's just asked for some clarification as to whether that 2023 date is where we'll be 100% covered by sort of net recurring rental income?
Yeah, that's correct. I mean, I don't have a slide, and we don't really give direction on dividend. What I can say, well, yes, our forecasts are that we get to 100% dividend cover by the end of 2023. Obviously it's linked to how we redeploy that EUR 50 million. Obviously some of the rental growth that we start to see through, and also leasing some of that vacant space that we have in . Yeah, the focus is we're probably slightly behind the curve in terms of redeploying that sale proceeds.
I think actually sitting here today, I'm actually pleased that we are where we are because of what's happened to markets over the last sort of six to eight weeks. It's very different. I do think we will see a bit more opportunity, a slightly better pricing. Having that dry powder, I think will be helpful. Again, being patient, I think has been the right thing. That's why the move or getting to 100% dividend cover has been deferred.
Great. Thanks, Jeff. Rick, potentially one for you here. We've had another question come through on the debt financing of the company. You mentioned that we've got a couple of debt facility refinancings that are sort of coming to a head in 2023. Have you got any view that you can provide on what that looks like in terms of pricing? What is an expectation you're looking to achieve? It's maybe something we can't comment on, but we've just had a couple of questions come in on what that looks like.
Yeah, I'll take that, James, actually. Yes, we do. I mean, we are actively speaking with banks, particularly in Germany, and there is some strong interest in lending, as an example, on the Stuttgart and Hamburg assets that this existing financing comes to the end. I think it was sort of June next year. We had some really strong feedback in terms of, I think something like five or six banks that have shown interest, and at pretty competitive margins. Yes, the five-year swap rate has increased, and I think people on this call will be very clear about that and how that has moved pretty quickly. Yes, that into the refinancing that loan, the overall sort of cost of interest will increase.
There is availability of debt, which is very positive. I don't think that's gonna be sort of clear for everyone. I think that sort of comes back to being a very strong counterparty that we are and the Schroders Group as an investment manager. The fact we are relatively lowly levered, I think that's very helpful for banks, in this current climate. I think on the small French loan that Rick touched on, what we will be looking to do there is probably group that with a couple of the other assets that we have in France that are unlevered. Those assets being Rumilly, the logistics, and potentially this new Cannes car showroom. Getting a little bit more critical mass.
I think we'll be able to attract some pretty competitive margin around that pooled sort of two or three assets collectively.
Great. Thank you, Jeff. Just moving slightly on to another topic now. There's been a couple of questions that have come through on the more sort of ESG sustainability side of things. More specifically, one of the questions I wanted to ask is around energy efficiency regulations in Europe and how that's impacting the portfolio. Are there any CapEx considerations that you have to consider now, when making investments and also on the existing portfolio?
Yeah, I mean, looking through our assets individually, they're primarily from an EPC point of view, primarily sort of A, B and C. Really the focus is to make sure that we are a minimum C. A really good example is, say, in the Netherlands, where if you have an office building that is less than a C, well, then that's not compliant. You can't actually lease that office building. We don't have any offices that are strictly offices that breach that. I mean, the one asset that will need some investment, and I touched on this in the presentation, is the mixed-use data center that we have in Apeldoorn. I mean, that is an asset that is coming to the end of its obsolescence.
Really investing in that is gonna be linked to regearing the lease with KPN. If we don't regear the lease with KPN, we'd be looking at alternate use on that and getting planning for alternate use and then selling that with planning approval. That is the one asset, and I talked about that being a mini Boulogne-Billancourt. A really good example of where we can invest, move the profile, regear the lease, and create some development upside there. That's where we will be typically looking to make the capital investment, where we're linking it to a regear or linking it to moving rents. That's exactly how, from an asset management point of view, we'll be moving the sustainability profile.
Just to follow on to that. Is that something that you're now taking into sort of broader consideration when you're making new investments as well? I mean, we've obviously heard more around brown discounts and green premiums within real estate in recent times. How does that impact in making a new investment?
Definitely. It's a very I mean, we look at the whole ESG across sort of every facet of investing. It's a very key part of our sort of acquisition criteria as well. I mean, we need to if it's not an asset that complies day one or has a minimum of, say, a C, and that's really our house expectation. It has to be a minimum of a C. There has to be a very clear business plan on how we move it to a minimum of a C, and that has to be reflected in our underwriting. It's a very a key part of our investment ethos.
Yes, that is definitely what we're underwriting and have been underwriting for some time, James, in terms of the acquisitions that we've made.
Great. Thank you. We've got so many questions coming in, so thank you everyone for sending them in. I think we've probably got time for just final two questions. I just wanted to ask this question, Jeff, around the vacancy in St. Cloud. There's been a couple of questions around just getting a bit more color on what's going on there, and is that something you're pretty confident you can let over the coming months?
Yeah. We're in discussions with a couple of tenants at the moment. I mean, it is an asset that will continue to be a bit bumpy. I mean, it's the nature of the tenancy profile in terms of SME businesses. So naturally, they sort of grow or move on. We try and sort of incubate those, and there's a couple of examples where we're trying to expand a couple of sitting tenants at the moment. I think the point I touched on about introducing a serviced office operator as well, and that sort of ties in well with that operational hospitality mindset that I touched on.
I think that would be, if we can secure that lease, I think that would be very, very beneficial not only to our tenants, but also to the broader complex. Because obviously we only own around sort of 16% of a broader condominium. I think there's some real upside in being able to deliver that lease and then also sort of expanding a couple of the sitting tenants as well. I mean, it's the type of building that I think occupiers haven't really made a clear view post-pandemic yet. It is a slightly older building, but it's the type of thing, once you get inside the building, you have some fantastic views over Paris, over the river, towards La Défense, and you're on exceptionally low rent.
Not every occupier wants to be in the best building and be paying sort of grade A prime real estate prices. You saw there in the one of the slides earlier where prime rents in that sub-market are around EUR 500 a meter. Prime rents in the city center of Paris are over EUR 900. As a back office location that's accessible, you can understand why coming off rents of sort of low 200s is appealing, particularly with those sort of views and. Yeah, the aesthetics of once you're inside the building very positive.
Thank you. Probably only time for this final question, but I thought I'd ask it. We're coming full circle here back to sort of macro and geopolitical. One of our clients on the call has just asked whether you think that the Russian-Ukraine conflict is gonna have any implications for the Western European real estate market. I know that's a big question to answer in the last two minutes of a presentation, but I thought I'd ask you that one last.
Look, I mean, we're starting to see it obviously in terms of energy prices and access to the like. I mean, there is concern. We're all concerned about, well, when will this stop? I think the general sense it'll probably sort of go on a bit longer. We don't have any Eastern European exposure. I think that's very clear and one of the real positives of this vehicle. We've always set our stall out to really focus on Germany, France and Western Europe. We've got no intention to go east. I mean, the one thing I probably could sort of highlight, particularly, say, European capital is not looking east for obviously good reasons that we've all been talking around.
There's probably that capital is really going to be pushing west as well. That will sort of hold up pricing to a degree, as well. There is some still positives around that in the midst of what is a tragic circumstance. But yeah, it's probably what we're seeing at the moment is probably more in terms of energy, supply, concerns around sort of commodities, and then what impact that may have on, say, the logistics and distribution, and also on the consumer. Hence why I guess that's also flowing through to the inflationary concerns that we all have as well.
Great. Thanks, Jeff. And thanks, Rick. Thank you everyone for sending in all those questions. Really do appreciate it. That's all we've got time for this morning. If you do want any more information on the trust, then please do sort of head to the website or please do get in touch with your normal Schroders contact. Thank you very much all for listening. Thanks once again to Jeff and Rick. Please do fill in the feedback form that will now appear on your screen, if at all possible. We really do read them, and we appreciate any feedback that you'd like to give us. With that's all we've got time for. Speak to you all again soon. Goodbye.