The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched an investigation into Home REIT.
The social housing investor said the FCA’s investigation covered the period from 22 September 2020 to 3 January 2023 and that it would “cooperate fully with the FCA in its work”.
Home REIT has been the subject of intense scrutiny since short seller Viceroy Research published a report in late 2022 in which it questioned the company’s financial situation, including the valuation of its assets.
In early January last year, the REIT temporarily suspended trading in its shares on the London Stock Exchange.
A month later, the board of Home REIT said it was considering all strategic options, including the possible sale of the company, after a review of the company’s portfolio found it had experienced a “serious deterioration in rent collections for the quarter to November 2022”.
