JSE-listed residential real estate investment trust Indluplace Properties on Wednesday declared a dividend of 92.61c a share for the year ended September 30, up 10.5% on its prelisting forecast.

This, FD Terry Kaplan said, was also higher than the company’s guidance of 92.55c.

Speaking to Engineering News Online in a telephone interview, he called it “a great success. We have achieved what we set out to achieve”.

During the year under review, the company acquired properties comprising 1 757 units valued at over R630-million, increasing its overall residential units to 5 447 valued at R2.4-billion.

This also resulted in a substantial increase in revenue, including rental income and expenditure recoverable from tenants, but excluding straight line rental income, to R349-million in the year under review, from R157.8-million in the prior financial year.

The number of residential buildings within the portfolio increased from 95 to 116 during the year.

CEO Carel de Wit said the company was investing in a defensive market and with the current forward yields it was offering, “it is a great time to invest in Indluplace”.

The company, which listed on the JSE in June 2015, would now focus on continuing to aggressively grow its portfolio, by acquiring yield-enhancing properties and portfolios that provide income from the day of acquisition.

Through its expansion plans, it will also focus on major residential centres in the country, including Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.

“Our strategy is to invest anywhere where there is a long-term demand for rental units in residential. We do still see a lot of opportunity in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Witbank,” De Wit pointed out.

Vacancies have decreased significantly, from 9.4% in the prior financial year, to 6.3% by March 31 and again to 3.4% by the end of the 2016 financial year.

“We are very pleased with the vacancies we had at the end of September, although we would not mind that being under 3%. There is general demand for value-for-money, well-run rental residential properties in the country, evident in this figure,” he added.

On rental arrears, standing at R1.9-million at the end of September, Kaplan said the fund’s property managers were managing it correctly. There have also been no evictions during the past year.

Indluplace expects its distribution growth from its current portfolio, excluding any acquisitions, to be between 5.5% and 6% for the 2017 financial year.