Ires Reit sees return to earnings growth following agreement with activist investor

Despite growth in earnings, the company posted a pre-tax loss of €6.7m in 2024

Ires Reit reported just over €85m in revenue, reflecting a fall of 3% on the previous year which it said was due to company disposals following a dispute with activist investors last year. Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

Ires Reit, the State's largest residential landlord, saw a return to earnings growth in 2024, with the company's new strategic review, agreed upon last year, starting to yield results.

However, the property investor posted a pre-tax loss of €6.7m in 2024, driven by a yield expansion of around 0.2% in the first six months of last year which saw an almost €34m non-cash fair value reduction for 2024.

The group's like-for-like revenue growth was 1.7% in the year, underpinned by rental increases and income from new initiatives. 

Ires Reit reported just over €85m in revenue, reflecting a fall of 3% on the previous year which it said was due to company disposals following a dispute with activist investors last year.

That dispute saw Ires spend more than €2.5m combating the activist shareholder, Vision Capital in 2024.

The landlord said its portfolio was effectively fully occupied at 99.4% at the end of the year, reflecting strong underlying demand for rental properties in Dublin.

Earnings growth for the year was 1.4% Ires Reit said, with an adjusted EPRA earnings – a measure of its underlying operating performance of an investment property company that excludes fair value gains, property disposals and other noncore items – of €28.9m which was slightly higher than the €28.5m it recorded in the previous year.

The company said it completed the disposal of 41 units in total in 2024 as part of its previously announced target of 315 units across a three to five-year period, selling 21 individual units. 

This resulted in an average sales premium of about 25% and a further 20 units in line with book value through a bulk sale.

It also completed the bulk sale of a further 25 units outside of the 315-unit programme, also in line with book values, which took the total number of units disposed of to 66 in 2024. 

Disposals completed during the year generated total gross proceeds of about €19m and a €1.6m gain compared to book value.

The landlord said it expects to complete the disposal of at least a further 50 units in 2025, at an average sales premium of between 15% and 20%, generating total gross proceeds of about €18m.

“2024 has been a year of solid progress for Ires," said CEO Eddie Byrne. "Following the conclusion of our Strategic Review in August, we delivered improvements across key performance metrics, including achieving earnings growth in 2024. 

"Our ongoing asset recycling programme remains a key value driver, delivering strong sales premiums, improving portfolio composition, and providing us with excess capital to deploy against our menu of accretive growth options, including through the share buyback programme which we intend to launch shortly."

Looking forward, Mr Byrne said the company will maximise value for shareholders through the implementation of our strategic initiatives.

"We will also continue to engage constructively and consistently with the Government as it reviews the rental regulations. As an Irish long-term investor with permanent capital at our disposal, we are uniquely positioned to navigate the evolving market landscape and deliver sustainable growth into the future.”