No. of Recommendations: 2
Today, I sold some Unite stock for quite a bit less than I paid for it recently.
Am I mad? I hope not.
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I had flipped Primary Health Properties REIT (PHP) to Unite (UTG) about 3 weeks ago.
The price of PHP was around 108p and UTG was around 500p.
Since then, UTG dropped 6% and PHP dropped 15%.
A 9% gain in 3 weeks isn't much, but it was enough to win me back. For now.
However, it's important to note that PHP is not free of problems. NAV has fallen in the most recent results.
NAV has fallen several years in a row because of gilt repricing effects on property yield.
This time it fell because of a mega-merger. NAV got a little bit diluted, but, there will be economy of scale etc.
If you like dull dividend stocks, PHP is a good choice I think and probably worth a look.
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Similarly, three weeks back, I flipped some Social Housing REIT (SOHO) at 67p to buy Unite at 525p.
But the world has changed quite a bit since the 24th of February.
Seeing rate & inflation expectations rising so much in the last three weeks, made me wonder about my choice.
Social Housing REIT benefits from having cheap long-term debt locked in, and long-term, inflation-linked contracts.
Both SOHO and UTG are down a similar amount since the 24th Feb.
The market offered me the chance to flip back, as though I had never sold SOHO. I took it.
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Unite is still by far my favourite holding.
But if you look at IUKP versus Unite, after the day of the results, you can see it subsequently held its price better than most REITs.
If that continues, other opportunities to rebalance may come along.
TRS
