Primary Health Properties – executive interview

In this interview Mark Davies, CEO of Primary Health Properties (PHP), talks about PHP’s results for the six months ending 30 June 2024, as well as the company’s strategy for continuing fully covered dividend growth.

PHP is a specialist UK real estate investment trust, with a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It is a long-term investor in primary healthcare property in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. These are mostly let to general practitioners and the NHS or HSE, organisations backed by the UK and Irish governments, respectively, and represent 89% of rents.

The long-term need for primary healthcare facilities is driven by demographic trends and is relatively unaffected by economic conditions. In both the UK and Ireland, populations are growing and ageing, with more complex healthcare needs. The defensive nature of healthcare property, PHP’s tenant profile and long, mostly upwards-only leases provide an exceptionally secure and growing rental income stream to support progressive dividends. PHP is now in its 28th year of unbroken dividend growth.