Premium tenants make Far Property formidable

• Company owns considerable land bank
• Far’s strategy is to secure tenants first

Far Property recorded a 2 percent increase in revenue from P138.2 million for the 12 months to June 2022 to P141.4 million for the 2022 reporting period. Far director Vidya Sanooj has attributed the increase to agile adaptation to changes in consumer behaviour and new ways of thinking and working. Rental yield continues to remain at a stable level of 10 percent despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rental yield is the return a property investor is likely to achieve on a property through rent. It is a percentage figure that is calculated by taking the yearly rental income of a property and dividing it by the total amount that has been invested in that property.

According to Sanooj, Far boasts of a very healthy yield from its completed projects. Further, the company’s net income from operation increased to P102.1 million during the 12 months ended June 2022 from the P97.3 million seen during the previous corresponding period. According to a major Far director, Ram Ottapathu, their vacancy rate is negligible, which is why the company has been able to perform satisfactorily despite headwinds like the COVID-19 pandemic that negatively affected many property companies.

According to Ram, the vacancies across the portfolio, remain below 5 percent, which he considers as encouraging, given the tough trading environment. “What we do to achieve these low vacancy rates is that we pre-lease the properties before development,” he said. Ram said what this means is that they only develop a property after signing a lease agreement with tenants. In that way, Far develops properties only to meet already existing demand. “We have a large land bank and we only develop the land when we have already signed leases with tenants,” he added.

Profit for the year attributable to linked unitholders stood at P116.4 million. In order to ensure continued growth and stability, Ram says there are new projects in the pipeline to fund growth and stability that are also aligned to the company’s future-oriented strategies for new investments. Currently the value of the company’s portfolio is at P1.45 billion, having made recognisable growth from the P1.39 billion recorded during the previous corresponding period.

Sanooj says Far’s tenant mix is dominated by Grade A tenants. By Grade A, Far refers to premium tenants, including retail tenants with national and international brands. Sanooj says 78 percent of the properties are occupied by Grade A tenants. Grade B, which comprises local tenants and medium-sized businesses with well-established business operations, have occupied 19 percent of Far’s property portfolio.  Grade C tenants, which comprises  new start-up companies with small business operations, sit on only 3 percent of the Far property portfolio.

But Far has a balanced property portfolio at least 41 percent of which is in the industrial property space, 51 percent in the commercial property space while the remaining 8 percent is in the residential space. However, the largest revenue spinner for Far is the commercial properties section, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the company’s total revenue. Industrial properties are the second largest contributor to revenue while the residential segment is the least contributor to the Far revenue mix.

According to Ram, the company targets mostly the commercial and industrial properties because that is where they get institutional tenants. “The board has made a decision to exit residential investments and focus on the commercial and industrial developments,” he disclosed. Far has operations in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. Botswana makes 86 percent of the company’s total revenue while South Africa and Zambia account for 12 percent and 2 percent respectively.