Land Securities to start Trinity Leeds retail project

Land Securities said it has achieved its target of 43 per cent of tenant pre-lets at the 750,000 sq ft development. A further four per cent are in solicitors' hands.

Lettings include Next, Top Shop, River Island, Cult and Hollister with an extension and new entrance into Marks & Spencer.

The total development cost of the scheme is estimated to be 350m and additional capital expenditure will be approximately 240m.

The construction contract is due to be signed imminently with project completion due for Spring 2013.

Land Securities said it expects continued recovery in UK property values over medium term, and sees it "interspersed by ripples" amid economic uncertainty.

"We see strong investor demand in some sub-markets, but early evidence of price resistance in others. We will continue to play any such imbalances to our advantage," chief executive Francis Salway said in a trading update.

The real estate investment trust (REIT) said it achieved 4.6m of development lettings in the three months to end-June, and concluded total property sales of 302.9m in the quarter at 2.6 per cent above March 2010 valuation.

The group's loan-to-value ratio at end-June, based on March 31, 2010, asset values, was 46.1 per cent, up from 43.5 per cent at 31 March 2010.

The loan-to-value ratio will fall to 43.7 per cent upon receipt of the 225m initial payment from Land Securities' sale of the Park House property in London.