Impact Healthcare REIT, which own a diversified portfolio of UK healthcare real estate assets, has reported pre-tax profit of £26.3m for the first six months of 2024, compared to £27.6m reported for the first six months of last year.

The REIT’s contracted annual rent roll was £51.1m for the half-year, compared to £48.1m reported for the first six months of 2023.

In the first half of the year, inflation-linked rent increases and stable yields drove a 2.9% increase in like-for-like investment property value.

As a result, net asset value grew by 2.5% to £490.2m.

Total accounting return for the period was 5.5%; loan-to-value was 27.8%. Drawn debt was £189.8m from £250m of committed debt facilities, of which the weighted average term is 5.8 years.

Impact’s chairman, Simon Laffin, said: “We very much welcome the independent inquiry into the National Health Service, led by Lord Darzi, and welcome any opportunity to participate.

“Care homes for the elderly are a critical and growing part of our health infrastructure, particularly with an ageing population.

“Care homes provide a better environment than hospital wards for frail, elderly people, not needing intensive medical care.

“Moreover, care homes can play a key role in helping to free up hospital beds by taking patients awaiting discharge.

“This would reduce NHS waiting lists and support more efficiency in hospitals.

“At present it is estimated that 13,000 patients are still in hospital only because they are not being offered care in the community such as step-down, nursing or residential care beds.

“We aim to provide residential care homes which are both high-quality and affordable, in order to deliver long-term sustainable returns to our shareholders.

“All our lease rentals are inflation-linked, and the vast majority are capped at 4%, with a minimum of 2%, per annum.

“The spike in inflation to double digits in 2023 therefore did not flow fully into rent increases, but strengthened the financial viability of our tenants.

“Strong performances from our tenants are a key factor in reducing risk to our income stream and improving our risk-adjusted returns and valuations.

“We were able to increase our fully covered dividend this year, while keeping rents affordable for our tenants.

“The latest tenants’ average annual rent cover is 2.19×3 which is the highest it has been since the company’s inception. The affordability of our rent to tenants, and consequently the affordability of care home fees to residents, are moreover crucial to the continued successful provision of residential and nursing care.”