H&R Real Estate Investment Trust ($HRUN)

Good morning, and welcome to H&R Real Estate Investment Trust 2026 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Before beginning the call, H&R would like to remind listeners that certain statements, which may include predictions, conclusions, forecasts or projections and the remarks that follow may contain forward-looking information, which reflect the current expectations of management regarding future events and performance and speak only as of today's date. Forward-looking information requires management to make assumptions or rely on certain material factors and is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the statements in the forward-looking information. In discussing H&R's financial and operating performance and in responding to your questions, we may reference certain financial measures, which do not have a meaning recognized or standardized under IFRS or Canadian generally accepted accounting principles and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other reporting issuers. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered as alternatives to net income or comparable metrics determined in accordance with IFRS as indicators of H&R's performance, liquidity, cash flows and profitability. H&R's management uses these measures to aid in assessing the REIT's underlying performance and provides these additional measures so that investors can do the same. Additional information about the material factors, assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements in the forward-looking information and the material factors or assumptions that may have been applied in making such statements, together with details on H&R's use of non-GAAP financial measures are described in more detail in H&R's public filings, which can be found on H&R's website and www.sedar.com. I would now like to introduce Mr. Tom Hofstedter, Chief Executive Officer of H&R REIT. Please go ahead, Mr. Hofstedter.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Larry Froom, our CFO, is not available today. Cheryl Fried and Jason Burkin will be taking the questions. In light of that, we're going to bypass Larry's introductory comments and go right to Emily Watson, Head of our Lantower division, to bring us up to date. Emily?

Thank you, Tom, and thanks to all of you for joining us. I'll begin with status update on externalizing property management and some operational highlights, followed by an overview of our first quarter performance before turning to development progress. Q1 operating conditions progressed as we anticipated. We successfully transitioned property management to Greystar as of April 1. We are encouraged by our early post-transition indicators. April lead volume increasing 18% over prior year. Completed tours were 13% higher than April of last year and approved leases increased over 70% year-over-year for the month of April. Additionally, our bulk WiFi projects are progressing well. 4 communities have launched and are expected to drive roughly $800,000 in revenue for 2026 with another 7 projects in the pipeline. Greystar's early results paired with strong demand driven by steady wage growth, low rent-to-income ratios and high retention rates reinforce our confidence that we are well positioned to capitalize on a market recovery across our Sunbelt portfolio. Same-property net operating income on a cash basis from residential properties in U.S. dollars increased by 2.3% for the 3 months ending March 31, 2026, compared to the respective 2025 period. This growth was primarily driven by the lease-up of Lantower West Love and Lantower Midtown, both in Dallas, Texas. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in rental income from H&R Sunbelt properties as a result of higher vacancies and concessions. Same asset occupancy ended the quarter at 90.9%, a decrease of 1.2% from Q4 and 30 basis points from prior year. Sunbelt blended lease trade-outs were negative 3.5% in Q1, a 50 basis point decrease over Q4 and a 114 basis point decrease over Q1 of 2025. New lease trade-outs were negative 14.8%, and renewal lease rates increased 3.8%. Importantly, our Sunbelt resident retention remained strong at 58.3% in Q1. Turning to developments. Our new REIT projects in Florida, of which H&R has a 29.1% ownership interest, continue to progress well and remain on budget. Sunrise in Orlando received their TCO this week, expecting first move-ins by June. We expect Lantower Bayside in Tampa, Florida, to receive TCO next week and also expect first move-ins in June. Construction completion for both assets is expected by the end of June. Lantower currently has 9 Sunbelt developments in the pipeline totaling approximately 2,900 suites at H&R's ownership interest. Multiple sites are fully permitted and ready for construction, and we are advancing design, drawing and permitting on the remainder. In summary, the partnership between the Greystar teams and our asset management, development and accounting teams has begun well. We believe this transition will result in long-term value creation through efficiency at scale, enhanced oversight and significant overhead savings. We are encouraged by the strong fundamentals in the multifamily sector and specifically our markets. Improving market conditions, a laser-focused operating platform with buying power and market presence of our third-party management company has positioned our portfolio to take advantage of the recovery expected in the second half of this year. Short-term pricing power remains soft in a few regions, but the broader fundamentals for multifamily are gaining traction. Supply pipelines are thinning and affordability continues to draw demand, and our early operational indicators under Greystar are moving in the right direction. I also want to recognize and thank our team for a successful transition to Greystar and for their continued partnership and drive to deliver strong performance across the portfolio. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Tom.

Thanks, Emily. Operator, you can open up the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from Jimmy Shan with RBC Capital Markets.

So maybe just on Lantower, occupancy did decline sequentially, as you mentioned. I'm just kind of wondering sort of what do you think drove that? And where is occupancy sitting today?

Occupancy is right around that 90% mark, Jimmy, thanks for the question. I would not be surprised and obviously can't put an attribution to it, but the Q1 was our transition month to Greystar. So I think that we had a lot of operational focus on our websites transitioning our property, our folks learning new roles, just if you can remember back when you started a new job. So I do think that had an effect. To what extent? I don't know. Is it 1%, 2%? Probably. But I do think that the April getting everybody marching in the right direction proves that everybody is kind of settling in and expect that number to continue to grow.

Okay. And the $5 million of savings, you still think that's going to be realized over the course of '26?

I do. Just our management fees alone is a big bump, and we just continue to get better savings on virtually almost every line item. I think I shared the painting, our discount last year or with -- on the last quarter was 40% and theirs is 85%. You extrapolate that group insurance alone for our employees is a 30% discount to what we were able to. So just kind of in every corner, you just get better buying power when you're 1 million units versus 9,000 units. So yes, I feel very confident for our overhead costs and things that will -- are hitting the property that we'll see those savings.

Okay. And then just turning to a couple of kind of big leases. The industrial lease, the. Former HBC. I'm wondering if there's any update on leasing that space and then the 330 Front Street, the RBC move out, kind of what's your expectation on re-leasing that space?

HBC is currently just leased out on a temporary basis to a film studio. I can't tell you which movie it is. And there's some activity. It's not -- it's a weak market, but we're optimistic. I hope by the end of the year, it will be leased out. The office in Front Street is seeing large demand from large users. So we have the financial institutions, as you'd expect. Again, we're optimistic that we should see some leases signed this year, hopefully, this quarter actually for the RBC space that's currently available. I'm hoping that all of it will be taken by one tenant, but we are seeing, as I said, large user demand for Front Street.

Okay. And I guess just on Front Street asset sales, I suspect that's going to be pushed further out once you get the lease done. And maybe if you could also update us on some of the asset sales that you're working on right now?

So we're working -- so Front Street is not on the market. We're not going to be selling it until we get further ahead in leasing. So my guess is that it won't be put on the market this year. 26 Wellington is on the market. We expect to have signed a deal. We have an unconditional deal done -- conditional deal signed right now. We're hoping that it gets signed up firm in the second quarter. 25 Sheppard, I can say the same thing. And Gowanus, we also hope to have something firm to be able to announce probably this quarter. So those 3 assets, I'm hoping this will be this quarter, maybe the next and Front Street off the market.

The next question comes from Tal Woolley with CIBC Capital Markets.

Just on the savings from the Greystar transaction, that's all going to be captured within operating expenses. There's no impact on the trust corporate expenses?

Yes, there will be considerable amount on the trust as well just from the overhead that we had in our property management vertical that is now on Greystar's payroll and not on ours and doesn't encumber our NOI at the property. So I can't tell you the split off the top of my head, but there was considerable savings on trust as well as the operational things that hit NOI.

Okay. And then, Tom, I think you have one unsecured bond issue coming due this year. I know when you were in the credit review process, you had looked maybe at using credit facilities more. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about addressing that maturity?

We have -- the asset sales that I talked about just now is -- should cover the unsecured that rolls. So we do not plan on issuing new unsecured right now.

Okay. And then just lastly, any comments on -- I think the fees this year, your management fees were sort of flat roughly year-over-year. Any sort of expected changes to those over the course of 2026?

[Operator Instructions] Next question comes from Sam Damiani with TD Cowen.

Maybe just looking at the top tenant list there, there's 2 or 3 with relatively short remaining terms to their maturity. Wondering if you could comment on the prospects for renewing some of those tenants. I'm thinking of Bell and O-I Canada Corp.

So the answer to the question is Bell, we -- I don't see why we would have Bell. The only Bell we have is Richelieu, and that comes up in the end of the year, we do not expect them to renew. That asset is being rezoned for residential townhouse use, not for high-rise residential. So we expect to demolish that building and convert it to residential and build a residential development on that. So that's -- we're not even talking to them about renewal of that asset. As far as the other one that you mentioned, we're in discussions.

Okay. And just on remaining -- some of the remaining office tower -- office buildings, you discussed a few, but there's the big one in Calgary and the big one in Long Island City.

Both those tenants are sticky tenants. We're not going to be selling them right now until we get -- until we negotiate some form of extension. As they're sticky, we're very optimistic that we will get an extension, but it won't happen. We will not do anything this year. We're not in discussions with either one of them at this point in time.

So when would you envision sort of entering into those discussions in order to extend the lease and then open the door to a sale?

In case of TransCanada, I'm pretty sure that they had some changes on the real estate side recently. I expect that they are very comfortable having renewal, right? So there's not exactly there's a gun to anybody's head to talk renewal. They are occupying the entire building. And so again, they're using it. They're using it fully. They work in the office 5 days a week. I don't expect them to have any reason to talk to us for another year or so. I would say exactly the same thing with Tuthill. It's occupied by a tenant that uses the space 4 days a week. It's used fully. And I don't think -- I know that they don't like -- because of the nature of their use, they don't like to have other tenants within their buildings. So I expect optimistic results in discussing renewals over there as well. They have another 2 years to go before -- or just under 2 years to go before they have to give us notice and then they have a renewal for a 10-year option and the rent is only pegged 1.5 years after that. So I don't expect to have any discussions with them for probably -- I don't see any reason to have for another 18 months or so, maybe 12 to 18 months. We would not be selling that asset either until we enter into those discussions. Again, they are sticky tenants, both of them. And as such, we're optimistic in getting renewals, and therefore, there'll be no point in taking a small chance that they'd be leaving and reducing the price and selling it.

Okay. Understood. And then just lastly, Emily, thank you very much again for the good overview of the business, and it's great to see that the transition has been smooth and is opening up some new opportunities. You did answer, I think, Jimmy's question on the occupancy, but would you say a similar response on the slight worsening in leasing spreads that, I guess, seem to occur in Q1?

I think they're going to stay stable in Q2. We see a lot of the supply really coming down in Q3 and Q4. So we see a much better pricing power. Probably the end of Q2, we'll start seeing a little bit of the new lease trade-outs get a little bit more favorable. But I do expect similar results for Q2, higher occupancy. And then Q3, Q4 should be much better positioned for really the multifamily market, but definitely, our markets should be stronger in Q3 and Q4.

The next question is a follow-up from Jimmy Shan with RBC Capital Markets.

Just in terms of capital allocation, should we expect the proceeds from further asset sales to go towards NCIB now that your leverage metrics has improved quite a bit?

Yes, you could expect us initiating NCIB activity once we hopefully get through the sales of the 3 assets that I mentioned.

Okay. And then maybe some big picture question on strategy. Like it's been 5 years since you did the last strategic plan. Office is now down to 10% or so of the portfolio. I could argue it's almost there. When should we expect or when should investors expect like a refreshed sort of strategic plan in terms of what the go-forward plan would be to close, continue to close that NAV gap?

Your question is very, very apropos and valid. We are pretty close to finishing our plan. The assets that I mentioned that we'll be keeping are probably not going to be sold at this point in time. So you can basically assume by the end of the year, the strategic plan will be completed, at which point in time we'll be really having industrial and Lantower. At that point in time, we'll have to really figure out before the year is out is my guess, giving you some indication as to timing, figure out what is next, if it's going to be a rollout of one of the assets, keeping them or what we're going to be doing. But we're on top of it. We're having discussions among our trustees, and we hope to have a resolution later before the year is out.

The next question comes from Mario Saric with Scotiabank.

Maybe just coming back to Emily on the lease spreads for Lantower and the expectation of them getting better in the second half of the year. Where would you like to see kind of the new lease spread and the blended lease spread kind of end the year? Like how much upside do you think there is once the supply really tapers off, heading into '27?

Great question. I think that -- yes, Q3, I think that we should get back to kind of a flat -- well, by the end of Q2, early Q3, get back to a flat lease spread and see maybe positive 2%, positive 3% going into the end of the fourth quarter, which obviously has some seasonality, so I might be a little bit tepid there. But yes, 2% or 3% favorable or positive on the blended should be where we have some inverted rent rolls out there, but we see concessions starting to taper down. We see folks starting to be a little bit more resilient that we want to get our pricing power for the leasing season and get really strong and then Q3, Q4 with the fundamentals really falling back into line, we should revert back to the pre-COVID leasing seasons that we've had historically.

Okay. And then last quarter, there was some discussion of potentially exiting some Lantower markets. Can you perhaps give us an update in terms of where that stands today?

The market that we're referring to is Austin. And at that point in time, last quarter, we told you that we're going to wait a quarter. We're still waiting a quarter. So that is the next target that we're putting on the market. I would tend to say probably later on this year, we probably were putting that on the market. We also have the Hercules project with Ledcor, our JV in outside San Francisco that is on the market, and we hope to have -- be able to tell you the results of that asset sale this quarter.

Okay. And then just sticking to the asset sales, Tom, based on kind of the commentary with respect to some of the long lease duration office assets, is it fair to say the targeted $500 million to $1 billion plus that we talked about last quarter, maybe it's a bit lower than that? Or is that still the plan going forward?

$500 million is definitely achievable. $1 billion is probably not -- is not on the guaranteed horizon, but I'd be comfortable with it at the $500 level.

And how much of the $500 million would be attributable to the 3 assets that you highlighted?

Round numbers, 300-ish.

And is there a cap rate range you'd like to provide on the $500 million?

No. The cap rate would not be very relevant. I don't think it's relevant when you have a piece of this -- the largest part of that is a piece of land, which has no cap rate. So I can't really talk cap rate on that.

I guess I'm trying to understand the potential FFO impact associated with the $500 million.

Oh, I see. So on the 500, the Gowanus has 0, and therefore, the cap rate on the office buildings, I don't know, I would say probably around 8%, 7.5% in that range.

Okay. And sorry, last one for me, just on Caledon. Any update there in terms of a transaction?

We are in discussions, no updates. It's in their court to decide. My guess is we'll have something done by the end of the quarter as well. As far as what that is, the decision is I have 0 visibility because they haven't decided. All I can tell you is that they're building the highway, so something is going to happen. What it is, though, we really don't know.

We have no further questions. I will turn the call back over to Tom Hofstedter for closing comments.

Thanks, everybody. Have a great long weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.