Troubled Home REIT votes to remove policy to house vulnerable people
Home REIT investors have undergone a dramatic change in their business model as they struggle to stay afloat.
In a near-unanimous vote at a meeting at the offices of the public relations firm FTI in the city, shareholders approved a plan to eliminate the property owner’s focus on owning homes only for vulnerable occupants such as the homeless.
Instead, the decision would allow him to invest in all types of residential property.
In a near-unanimous vote at a meeting at the City offices of public relations firm FTI yesterday, shareholders approved a plan to eliminate a property owner’s focus on owning homes only for vulnerable occupants like the homeless.
The strategy also allows the company’s investment manager, AEW, to restructure its portfolio and make the length of its leases more flexible.
The Home REIT previously warned that the changes were “urgent” after it collected just 7% of the nearly £8.8m in rent owed to it for the period spanning May and June.
The review of its investment ethics comes after the group sold some of its properties to raise cash and stay afloat, with some homes selling for more than 80% below purchase price.
An investigation by forensic accountants Alvarez & Marsal previously uncovered transparency and due diligence lapses uncovered by former investment adviser Alvarium Home Reit Advisors.
But despite plans to rewrite the strategy and divest their holdings for peanuts, many of the remaining shareholders had grown cynical and fatalistic about the company’s future.
Before the vote, one investor told the Mail: “There seems to be a resigned attitude, so why bother?”
