Listed property unit trust Allan Gray Property Trust (Grayprop) yesterday reported that its net distributable income for the first six months of the financial year amounted to 21,4c a unit, a 10,9% increase on the distributions for the same period last year.

But the distribution growth slightly lagged the average distribution growth that has been coming out of the listed property sector. Grayprop, which yesterday released results for the six months to March, said last year that its distributions would be 8%-12% higher this year.

Macquarie First South property analyst Leon Allison said the results were “very much in line with what we expected. The growth from Grayprop lags the sector growth somewhat, which was closer to 15% in the last quarter.”

He said Grayprop had a few “problem buildings” in its property portfolio that it was addressing, including shopping centres at Brightwater Commons in Randburg and Boulders in Midrand. But Grayprop MD John Rainier said Boulders was “not a problem building”.

“We have some vacant space on the lower level of the shopping centre and it’s completely divorced from the rest of the centre,” said Rainier.

Rainier said although Grayprop was looking to fill the vacant space, it would not rush to fill it for the sake of it.

“We want to get the right tenants.”

Rainier said that about 13000m² of the space at the Brightwater Commons, which is just under 50000m² in total, was vacant. But he said Grayprop was talking to two prospective tenants “to occupy about half of that space”.

Grayprop said that the redevelopment of the N1 City Mall, of which it owned a 58% share, was complete.

The remaining share of the Western Cape shopping centre is owned by property unit trust Sycom.