The company also said that the results for the year under review were not comparable to those of the previous year because of this disposal. Rand Leases disposed of its entire investment property portfolio to property loan stock company Redefine Income Fund for a consideration of R356m.

The company said that to date 22 properties had been transferred.

Rand Leases reported a loss of R2,6m an improvement on the loss of R9,4m last year. The company also reported headline a loss of 6,03c for each linked unit.

Revenue also dropped substantially from R133,5m last year to R49,4m this year.

The company said that in line with its new strategy future distributions would be declared out of surpluses generated by development projects.

No distribution was declared for the year to June.

Rand Leases reported that the company's new strategy was "progressing well", and that a number of projects had been identified and could be expected to make "significant contributions" to its profitability in future.

The company said that it expected to conclude an agreement with the Gauteng housing department soon for phase three of a low-cost housing project.

Rand Leases said it had obtained a favourable environmental impact assessment approval for the lowcost housing development, but was experiencing unexpected delays in concluding a "commercially acceptable agreement" with government.

The company said 1,152 units of the low-cost housing development were completed and handed over to beneficiaries during the review, year, bringing the total number of houses completed and handed over so far to 12,913.

Rand Leases said altogether 3861 houses were completed and handed over this year.

Publisher: Business Day
Source: Business Day