15 October 2025
If you are covering British Land’s latest financial results, please find below a comment from Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot:
“When British Land provided its full year 2026 guidance at the start of the year, the market response was understandably underwhelming - management suggested that this year's earnings per share (EPS) would be flat versus last year, and then grow 3-6% per annum thereafter. It hasn't taken long for that guidance to be upgraded, and while the increase isn't enormous, it is encouraging to see that management now believes EPS will show positive growth in 2026, and "at least 6% in 2027".
“This relative positivity is driven by a combination of strong market rental growth and occupancy gains. Rental levels across British Land’s portfolio have increased 2.4% in the six-month period, at the top end of the annualised 3-5% guidance, and the retail park portfolio occupancy is 99% while occupancy across the London campuses has increased significantly, by 5% since March, including particularly high levels of occupancy in the Broadgate campus in the heart of the City.
“The company's headline net asset value (NAV) has also been updated, and is up 2% in the period. It is a little frustrating that not all of the rental growth appears to have translated to NAV growth, but we will have to wait for the more complete results in November to fully understand the difference. However, with the NAV increasing at 4% on an annualised basis, and shares paying a 6%+ dividend, and further growth expected, there are reasons for shareholders to be optimistic.”
